Bhutto placed under house arrest
Pakistani police placed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under house arrest Friday, uncoiling barbed wire in front of her Islamabad villa, and reportedly rounded up thousands of her supporters to block a mass protest against emergency rule.
The attack underscored the threat posed by religious extremists in this Islamic country that President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Bhutto are sparring over. It was cited by Musharraf as the primary reason for imposing the state of emergency last Saturday.
So much for Musharraf playing nice. I guess he realized that any power sharing plan with Bhutto would only be the first step on a short path to him being out of power. So instead he is taking a much riskier option, but one that may let him continue to hold onto total power. No guess yet if he will succeed or not.
But most of the thousands of people rounded up countrywide since have been moderates \ufffd lawyers and activists from secular opposition parties, such as Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party. The mass detentions have fueled criticism that Musharraf \ufffd who seized power in a 1999 coup \ufffd declared the emergency to maintain his own grip on power.
Duh.
Jay