Bhutto under house arrest

FE Team | Published: November 10, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

ISLAMABAD, Nov 9 (Agencies): Pakistani police placed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under house arrest Friday, uncoiling barbed wire in front of her Islamabad villa, and reportedly rounded up 5,000 of her supporters to block a mass protest against emergency rule.
Meanwhile, a bomb at the house of a federal minister in northwestern city of Peshawar killed four people Friday. Several others were wounded in the suicide attack, which marks the first reported deaths in the violence following the declaration of emergency by President Pervez Musharraf.
Another report from Washington adds, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday he was concerned that instability in Pakistan could distract Pakistani forces from anti-terrorist operations.
Bhutto tried to leave by car but was blocked by police after a scuffle with her supporters who tried to remove a barri cade. The former prime minister had planned to address a rally in nearby Rawalpindi, defying a ban on public gatherings. Kamal Shah, a top Interior Ministry official, said a district magistrate had served a "detention order" on Bhutto -- who last month escaped assassination by suicide bombers -- so she could not leave her home.
However, speaking by phone from the scene, Bhutto said that no arrest papers had been served on her.
"If I'm arrested the People's Party of Pakistan workers will continue to fight for democracy and the rule of law," she told reporters who heard the call via speakerphone. She said that 5,000 members of her party had already been detained.
Afzal Khan, an Islamabad police official, said that officers blocking her way were following a government order under which she could not hold the rally. The Rawalpindi mayor said there was a "credible report" that six or seven suicide bombers were preparing to attack it.
The crackdown showed that a week after suspending the constitution and assuming emergency powers, President Pervez Musharraf was not letting up on his political rivals despite saying Thursday that parliamentary elections would go ahead by mid-February, just a month later than originally planned. His announcement came after intense pressure from the United States, his chief international supporter.