The Pakistani team investigating the assassination of Benazir Bhutto have made two “very important” arrests, a security official said today.

“The joint investigation team investigating the attack has arrested two very important alleged terrorists, Hasnain and Rafaqat, from Rawalpindi today,” the official told the AFP news agency.

Bhutto died in a gun and suicide bomb attack in the town, a garrison city adjoining the capital Islamabad, on December 27. The government accuses an Al-Qaeda-linked militant commander for orchestrating her killing.

The arrests coincide with the 40th and final day of the mourning period for the slain opposition leader, and in her family’s ancestral village of Garhi Khuda Baksh, ten thousand gathered at her tomb. Chanted Koranic verses and sombre hymns resounded through the village.

After today’s religious ceremonies, her party, the Pakistan People’s Party, will resume campaigning for the elections which are scheduled to take place on February 18. Asif Ali Zadari, her husband, who now leads the party, will hold a major rally on Saturday. Today he gave a short speech from a podium in front of the mausoleum, describing his wife as a martyr who sought to change the system of exploitation in an impoverished country.

“We will avenge Bibi Sahiba’s (Bhutto’s) martyrdom in a democratic way,” he said, grim faced, and flanked by bodyguards. “The time of empowerment for the poor will come and Bibi Sahiba’s mission will be accomplished.”

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