Bhutto under house arrest again

Amassive security operation was mounted by authorities on Tuesday to hold Opposition Leader Benazir Bhutto under house arrest for the second time in five days.

Amassive security operation was mounted by authorities on Tuesday to hold Opposition Leader Benazir Bhutto under house arrest for the second time in five days. The house arrest was made to prevent the Pakistan People8217;s Party PPP leader from staging a 185-mile protest march against the emergency rule.

Bhutto, who was placed under house arrest, urged military ruler Pervez Musharraf to quit as President in a telephone interview with Britain8217;s Sky News TV.

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 the first demonstrators to arrive at the cordon around her residence. The police detained a group of Bhutto supporters, including two lawmakers, who tried to cross the barricades and drove them away in prison service vans.

Bhutto8217;s aide Safdar Abbasi said the seven-day detention order was not binding, because neither Bhutto nor any of her representatives had been served with the document.

8220;She will defy the ban,8221; Abbasi said. 8220;We are ready for the long march, and our supporters will remove all the police blockades in the way of their leader,8221; Abbasi added.

However, despite the clampdown, Bhutto8217;s PPP on Tuesday started its 8220;long march8221; against the emergency rule with a convoy of over 100 vehicles, moving towards Islamabad without the former premier.

Shah Mahmoud Qureshi, President of the Punjab unit of the PPP, led the march with 110 vehicles and thousands of followers, party spokesperson Sherry Rehman said. Qureshi had met Bhutto on Tuesday morning.

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8220;Women parliamentarians are being picked up and inhumanly treated while the massive police presence outside Khosa8217;s house is growing to unprecedented numbers,8221; Rehman alleged.

Qureshi said the PPP had decided on Monday night that other leaders would lead the march if Bhutto was detained. 8220;If I am arrested, some other leader should take up the baton of democracy and take it forward,8221; she had said, the Dawn News channel reported.

Asked to comment on Bhutto8217;s house arrest ahead of Tuesday8217;s protest, National Security Council spokesperson Gordon Johndroe said: 8220;While the situation continues to evolve, we believe that peaceful protests should be permitted and those detained should be allowed to participate.8221;

Earlier, White House spokesperson Dana Perino said that President Bush thinks emergency rule must be lifted 8220;in order to have free and fair elections8221;.

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Prior to Bhutto8217;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.