Benazir and Priyanka after Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination

New Delhi, Dec. 28: In her time of the greatest sorrow, Benazir Bhutto was at her family’s side. Sonia Gandhi might or might not have planned to be at Larkana to attend the assassinated Pakistan leader’s funeral, but she couldn’t have even if she had wanted to.

Nor even could Pranab Mukherjee, the external affairs minister, as India’s representative.

Bhutto, who was present at Rajiv Gandhi’s funeral on May 24, 1991, was buried today beside her father’s grave mourned by thousands of her supporters and her family. But so dangerous is her Pakistan today that the safety of any visiting foreign leaders could not be assured.

The Indian government was keen on despatching a delegation but an official source said: “Pakistan advised against sending foreign dignitaries. There was no guarantee of how the security situation would play out.”

The government was informed that the airport in Karachi, the capital of Sindh, would be out of bounds today as would be those at Mohenjodaro and Sukkur, which are close to Larkana.

If sending an all-party team was not possible, Mukherjee was to represent India. But that too was ruled out.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and BJP leader L.K. Advani, who might singly or collectively have gone to the funeral in normal circumstances, went to the Pakistan high commission to mourn her death.

“It was with the deepest sense of sorrow that I learnt of the tragic demise of Madam Benazir Bhutto. In her sad and untimely death, Pakistan and South Asia have lost an outstanding political leader,” Singh wrote in the condolence book there.

Security was India’s prime concern but not the only one. A source said India’s perception was that Islamabad was downplaying Bhutto’s last rites by not giving them the status of a state funeral, though it had declared state mourning.

This was seen as a deterrent against high-profile political attendance at Larkana. “Obviously, we cannot impose ourselves against the implicit wishes of a foreign government,” the source said.

If and when things settle down, a delegation may visit Bhutto’s grave.

Fear stopped even Nawaz Sharif from attending the funeral. Bhutto ’s husband Asif Ali Zardari told the former Prime Minister not to travel to Larkana for security concerns.