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MASOOD HAIDER: BHUTTO PLACED UNDER HOUSE ARREST - MUSHARRAF'S CRACKDOWN
CONTINUES:
09/11/2007 (MaximsNews Network)
UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network /
- 09 November 2007 -- Pakistan
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's government put the former Prime
Minster
Benazir Bhutto under house arrest Friday morning at her Islamabad
residence and rounded up over 5,000 of her supporters to block
a mass protest against emergency rule.
Ms
Bhutto who returned to Pakistan after a much publicized agreement
with Gen. Musharraf's regime has quickly emerged as the major opposition
leader.
Ms Bhutto says that Gen. Musharraf's government should be
pursuing the terrorists in Northern areas of the country instead of arresting
political workers and leaders.
But the Islamabad authorities said a ban on public gatherings
would be enforced and the rally Ms Bhutto planned later Friday in Rawalpindi,
near Islamabad, would not go ahead. The city's mayor also said there was a
"credible report" that six or seven suicide bombers were preparing
to attack the rally.
Hours before the scheduled rally, lines of about 200 police
officers turned Ms. Bhutto’s house in Islamabad into a fortress, placing
concrete barriers and barbed wire at the entrance road, and said she would not
be permitted to attend. A party worker said Ms. Bhutto had been served with a
formal detention order.
Amid chaotic scenes, an attempt by Ms. Bhutto to leave was thwarted by the
police as they moved an armored personnel car and a police bus to block her
way. Sitting in a white four-wheel drive car and speaking through a megaphone,
Ms. Bhutto pushed through two barriers before she was stopped.
“Brothers from police,” she could be heard saying on the
megaphone. “Leave the way.”
By 4 p.m., local time, hours after the rally was scheduled to
begin, Ms. Bhutto had still not left her house.
“She has been served with a detention order,” a party leader, told
reporters outside Ms. Bhutto’s residence. “She has refused to accept it
and not bothered to look at how many days are marked on it.”
The Associated Press reported that police clashed near the Liaqat
Park park with supporters of Ms. Bhutto, and were using batons and tear
gas. Ms Bhutto was scheduled to speak at what was billed as Million Man
rally.
She is also scheduled to lead a Million Man march from Lahore to
Islamabad next week , but prospects of that happening look "very dim
" a Bhutto party's worker told reporters.
Police were arresting any Pakistan People’s Party worker who
showed up near Ms. Bhutto’s residence.
Workers shouted “Prime minister Benazir!” before being
shoved into police buses and vans.
Friday's crackdown showed that a week after
suspending the constitution, President Gen. 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.
The New York Times observed that Friday's move will furthers sour
relations with Bhutto, a former prime minister, and hurt the prospects of the
two pro-Western leaders forming a post-election alliance against religious
extremism.
Ms Bhutto's decision to join in anti-government protests against
Musharraf is another blow to the military leader whose popularity has
plummeted this year amid growing resentment of military rule and failure by
his government to curb increasing violence by Islamic militants, a newspaper
said.
Critics say that Musharraf who seized power in a 1999 coup
declared the emergency and ousted independent-minded judges to maintain his
own grip on power. The moves came days before the Supreme Court was expected
to rule on whether his recent re-election as president was legal.
Musharraf said the declaration of emergency last Saturday was needed to put an
end to political instability and to fight Taliban and al-Qaida-linked
militants.
But most of the thousands of people rounded up countrywide have
been moderates lawyers and activists from secular opposition parties. Police
have used batons and tear gas to squash attempts by lawyers to protest.
Hundreds of students have also stage demonstrations on university campuses.
Labels: United
Nations, U.N., Masood
Haider, Pakistan
coup, Gen.
Pervez Musharraf, dictator
~~~~~
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