Frustrated Bhutto 'will be freed tomorrow'

A public protest by Pakistan’s former premier Benazir Bhutto against emergency rule was stamped out before it could start by riot police today.

She was put under temporary house arrest by government orders to stop her becoming the focal point of a mass rally, but is expected to be allowed to go free tomorrow.

The move brought an immediate protest from America where President Bush called on President Pervez Musharraf to release her and other political party members being held.

The Pakistani leader used the threat of a suicide bombing against Ms Bhutto to hold her in her house in Islamabad, saying the move was for her own safety.

A government spokesman said: “I expect that (the order) is all over by now. She will be free to move tomorrow.”

But critics said gen Musharraf simply wanted to stop her attending a protest in nearby Rawalpindi where she called for thousands of supporters to join her.

And the few hundred people who did manage to make it to the planned meeting point were met with batons, tear gas and arrests.

Ms Bhutto twice tried to leave home today.

After being turned back a second time, her way blocked by an armoured vehicle, she got out of her car and joined her supporters, then delivered an address across the barricades.

“I want to tell you to have courage because this battle is against dictatorship and it will be won by the people,” she told her followers.

In Rawalpindi hundreds of police kept a tight grip on the largely empty streets and moved quickly against any hint of protest.

There were repeated clashes between stone-throwing protesters, who set piles of garbage and tyres on fire, and police, who fired tear gas shells from an armoured personnel carrier.

The crackdown showed that gen Musharraf, who suspended the constitution and declared emergency rule on Saturday, was not letting up on his political rivals.

Speaking by phone between her two attempts to escape her home, Ms Bhutto said her supporters would “continue to fight for democracy and the rule of law.” She also repeated demands that gen Musharraf step down as army chief by next week, when his presidential term expires.

Ms Bhutto’s decision to join in anti-government protests 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 Taliban and al-Qaida militants.

Most of the thousands of people arrested across the country since the weekend have been moderates, lawyers and activists from secular opposition parties, such as Ms Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party.

The mass detentions have fuelled criticism that gen Musharraf declared the emergency to maintain his own grip on power.

Meanwhile a suicide bombing at the home of a government minister in the north-western city of Peshawar killed four people. Minister for Political Affairs Amir Muqam was unhurt.