Bhutto Attempts to Escape House Arrest

Benazir Bhutto was today attempting to escape house arrest after being penned into her Islamabad home by a police barricade and barbed wire for around two hours.

The former prime minister has made two attempts to break through the barricade since police arrived to thwart her planned rally in Rawalpindi.

Each time she attempted to escape in her white Land cruiser, she was blocked by a police van, forcing her out of the car to join her supporters as they shouted: "Go Musharraf, go."

The clash between the opposition leader and police happened as two people were killed in an explosion at the Islamabad home of a government minister.

Earlier in the week, Ms Bhutto had said her supporters should defy a government ban on protests "at all costs".

Addressing the security forces in front of her house today, she said: "I'm your sister, I'm the daughter of Bhutto. I'm unarmed - let me go." However, police insisted she go back inside her home.

"If I am arrested, the Pakistan People's party workers will continue to fight for democracy and the rule of law. I want a political process," she said.

In a separate development, lawyer Athar Minallah told the Guardian he had spoken to the country's chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who has also been under effective house arrest since the imposition of emergency rule.

"I spoke to the chief justice and they have come and informed him they are going to take him to Quetta [in western Pakistan]," Mr Minallah said.

"[The chief justice] said his seven-year-old child is not well, and he does not want to leave Ismalanbad, but they told him they will take him forcefully ... he said he will not give in to tyranny and undemocratic forces."

Several hundred riot police wielding batons manned barricades at both ends of the street in the leafy Islamabad suburb where Ms Bhutto has her home.

However, parliamentarians and senior members of the PPP were allowed to enter the house. As Ms Bhutto emerged, her spokeswoman, Sherry Rehman, said they would go ahead with the rally regardless.

"She will continue with the rally despite the clampdown," she added. "They need an armored personnel carrier to stop an unarmed woman from leading a demonstration - this is a joke.

"It has now fallen on our shoulders to mobilize public support. This party has paid with blood, sweat and tears before. It will do so again."

Ms Rehman said the protest would start after Friday prayers. "We do not want bloodshed on the streets of Islamabad or Pakistan, but they are pushing us to the wall," she added.

Government officials said the rally could not go ahead partly because of the threat of an attack on Ms Bhutto.

A suicide bombing during her homecoming rally killed at least 140 people in Karachi on October 18.

However, Ms Rehman rejected the argument, saying: "Security is the responsibility of the government. They say there are eight terrorists on the loose in Rawalpindi - well if they know about it ...what have they done about it?"

It was difficult to see how the rally, due to take place in Rawalpindi, could be possible. In Rawalpindi, hundreds of police, some on horseback, barricaded a public park and sealed main streets.

A fleet of motorcycle police roamed the city, warning residents not to participate. A nearby motorway was also closed.

Outside Ms Bhutto's home, the handful of supporters who arrived were taken away by plainclothes officers and bundled into waiting police vans.

"Please tell me why I am being arrested. I have done nothing wrong," protested Naheed Hayat, a British-Pakistani who said she hoped to stand for the PPP in forthcoming elections.

Ms Bhutto's officials said the prospects for a power-sharing deal with the Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf, which had previously been under negotiation, appeared bleak.

"I don't think there's any possibility of a conversation between my party and Pervez Musharraf," party worker Abida Hussain said. "He is by now a veteran liar because he will not separate himself from what he calls his second skin, his uniform."

Ms Bhutto's party has made similar statements before, only to re-enter talks.