By DPA
Islamabad : Pakistan’s former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was placed under house arrest in Islamabad Friday morning to prevent her from holding a rally in the neighbouring town of Rawalpindi against the state of emergency promulgated by President Pervez Musharraf.
“Strong contingents of police have laid a siege to Bhutto’s house and no one is being allowed to go in or come out,” Makhdoom Amin Faheem, a senior leader of the ex-premier’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), said.
Riot police backed by security personnel called in from other towns blocked all roads leading out of Islamabad, as PPP activists started assembling on the outskirts of Rawalpindi to welcome their leader, who returned from eight years of self-imposed exile on Oct 18.
Bhutto’s homecoming rally last month in the southern city of Karachi was marred by suicide bombing of her convoy that killed up to 145 people.
Musharraf, who came to power in a bloodless coup in 1999, Thursday asserted that any resistance to his government would not be tolerated.
“All means will be used to control the protests,” Musharraf said.