CHICAGO - Chicago cabbie Syed Raza adored Benazir Bhutto, so when he heard the news of the Pakistani opposition leader's assassination on the radio Thursday, he was too grief-stricken to continue working.

Parking his taxi and ripping a small photograph of Bhutto from a newspaper, he walked to a bustling street corner in the city's Pakistani neighborhood and stood with several other mourners, some wiping tears from their eyes and exchanging hugs.

"She was the only hope for Pakistan. She was my role model,'' said the 42-year-old Pakistani-American, standing next to the Zam-Zam restaurant, the words "All praise to Allah'' written in Arabic and English above the door.

Nearby, Rana Javed, his eyes swollen red, held a framed picture of himself with Bhutto sitting on a couch.

"I've been crying since this morning,'' he the 53-year-old said. "I'm in shock. I can't believe it.''

Elsewhere in the vibrant South Asian neighborhood around Devon Avenue, Pakistanis - who number in the tens of thousands in Chicago - gathered in cafes or restaurants to watch television reports via satellite about Bhutto.

As they prepared for a rush of lunchtime customers, cooks and waiters at Khan Barbecue Restaurant along Devon paused to watch a speech of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf broadcast live on a flat-screen TV over a kitchen stove.

"People's minds are in Pakistan today,'' said Azhar Hassam, the restaurant's 50-year-old manager. "We're very upset.''

Jared, who is a member of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, said there has always been widespread admiration for Bhutto in Chicago's Pakistani community, describing her as a symbol of that country's aspiration for democracy.

"Everybody here, no matter whether they supported her party, is sad,'' he said.

Many Chicagoans spent Thursday calling friends and relatives in Pakistan to try and gauge whether Bhutto's assassination meant the country would spiral into chaos.

Raza's wife and three children were in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, and he feared for their lives.

As he spoke Thursday he fielded calls on his cell phone from his wife, who spends part of each year in Pakistan with their children. She said she could hear gunfire and see smoke from riots in the city.

"There's big chaos there,'' said Raza, who has worked as a taxi driver in Chicago since he moved here from Pakistan in the mid-1980s. "I'm very worried about my wife and kids.''

Raza said the 54-year-old Bhutto's death dashed his great optimism for Pakistan, saying she was destined to become the country's prime minister after elections early next year.

Now he dreads what's in store.

"Since she got killed now, I don't think Pakistan is going to be established as a democracy,'' he said. "Pakistan is falling into the wrong hands … to fanatic, extremist people.''