Benazir Bhutto put under seven day house arrest again

Police placed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under hous e arrest for the second time in four days to prevent her staging a march on Tuesday to protest emergency rule. An aide to Bhutto said she would try to start the three-day procession anyway.

The showdown over Bhutto's planned march from Lahore to the capital, Islamabad, intensified the political crisis engulfing Pakistan and further clouded the prospect of a pro-U.S. alliance against rising Islamic extremism forming between Bhutto a nd President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

Bhutto's close aide, Sen. Safdar Abbasi, said the seven-day detention order was not binding because neither Bhutto nor one of her representatives had been served with the document.
``We will go ahead with the march,'' he told The Associated Press.

Aftab Cheema, the chief of operations of Lahore city police, told the AP that a Bhutto representative had received the order issued by the government of Punjab province, where Bhutto has been staying at the house of a lawmaker from her party.

``She has been detained and she won't be allowed to come out,'' Cheema said.
He said about 600 police had been deployed around the house in Lahore and additional forces could be sent later Tuesday, when Bhutto was due to commence her 300-kilometer (185-mile) procession to Islamabad.

A series of three steel-and-barbed wire barricades were erected around the house Monday and sharpshooters took up positions on surrounding rooftops.


Courtesy:thehindu.com
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