LAHORE, Pakistan — Authorities mounted a massive security operation today to hold opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under house arrest for the second time in five days and prevent her from staging a 185-mile protest march against emergency rule.
CNN reported that the former Pakistan Prime Minister responded by calling on Pervez Musharraf to step down immediately as Pakistan’s president in the wake of a mass crackdown on the opposition this week.
“It’s time for him to leave,” Bhutto said in a phone interview with CNN, saying she would not serve under him.An aide to Bhutto said her supporters would sweep away the barricades and allow her to embark on the planned three-day procession.
However, police swiftly detained dozens of demonstrators who tried toapproach her residence.
The clampdown intensified the political crisis engulfing Pakistan and further clouded the prospect of a pro-U.S. alliance against rising Islamic extremism forming between Bhutto and President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
Bhutto and other opposition leaders are demanding that Musharraf lift the emergency rule he imposed on Nov. 3, saying that elections planned by January cannot be free and fair under such conditions, and that the president step down as head of the military.
Police on Tuesday detained about 50 Bhutto supporters, including two lawmakers, who approached the barricades shouting slogans including “Go Musharraf go!” and “Prime Minister Benazir!”
“They are depriving us of our fundamental right to protest against authoritarian rule and hold a long march for the revival of democracy,” Yusuf Raza Gilani, a former speaker of Pakistan’s National Assembly told reporters as he was led away.
Farzana Raja, a spokeswoman for Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party, claimed thousands of its activists had been rounded up to thwart th march. Raja too was detained.
Thousands of police in riot gear blocked all roads leading to an upscale area of Lahore from where Bhutto wanted to lead the procession.
Police stood behind vehicles and a row of metal barricades topped with barbed wire. The house of a lawmaker where Bhutto was staying was out of sight for reporters, who were prevented from crossing the cordon.
Bhutto’s spokeswoman, Sherry Rehman, said the former prime minister was stuck in the house along with a handful of top aides.
She said Punjab’s provincial government had attached the seven-day detention order as well as several padlocks to the front gate.
Bhutto “remains firm in her resolve to lead the long march as well as the nation out of this crisis,” Rehman said.
Prior to Bhutto’s re-arrest, police said they had ramped up security around her due to intelligence that a suicide bomber was planning to attack her in Lahore.
U.S.: Lift emergency law before vote
The Bush administration is dispatching a high-level envoy to Pakistan to tell Gen. Pervez Musharraf face-to-face that the U.S. will not be satisfied with his plan to hold elections unless he first lifts emergency law, administration officials said Monday.
The officials questioned whether elections could be legitimate if held when the country remains under lockdown, with opposition parties unable to campaign or assemble freely. They declined to elaborate on the envoy’s mission and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The New York Times
Government troops on the defensive
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — While Musharraf has justified emergency rule by arguing that he needs a free hand to battle groups — including the Taliban and al-Qaeda — in Pakistan’s northwest border regions, local officials, residents and analysts say that so far, at least, the government’s troops remain on the defensive against extremist forces.
Fighters loyal to a radical cleric have in recent days overrun three additional police stations and now roam unhindered through much of the Swat Valley.
But Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad hinted that the army was on the verge of launching an operation to stop the losses.
The Washington Post
