Pakistan on high alert for funeral

Pakistani policemen cordon off the site of a fatal attack on Salman Taseer, the governor of Pakistan's most politically important province Punjab, by his bodyguard in Islamabad on January 4, 2011.

Pakistan is on high alert ahead of the funeral of the Punjab provincial governor, who was assassinated by his own bodyguard in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

The governor of Pakistan's powerful province of Punjab, Salman Taseer, was gunned down on Tuesday.

Following the country's most high-profile assassination in three years, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ordered a state funeral on Wednesday and he also announced three days of national mourning.

Taseer's body was flown to Lahore for the state funeral.

Gilani has appealed for calm with memories of widespread riots after the December 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Authorities have thrown a ring of steel around the funeral venue to guard against possible unrest after hundreds of supporters of the main ruling Pakistan People's Party took to the streets across the country on Tuesday to protest the governor's assassination.

Taseer was a high profile member of the ruling party and a close ally of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.

Meanwhile, the country's main opposition party has given the coalition government a three-day deadline to agree to its proposals. It has warned that the government faces collapse if it doesn't agree to its demand for key reforms.

MSH/HRF

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