Defiant Bhutto to intensify public protests

ISLAMABAD: Unfazed by the government crackdown, opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has called for a shutdown in Sindh province on Sunday and a 'long march' from Lahore to the capital to oppose President Pervez Musharraf's emergency rule, hours after authorities ended her house arrest.

The Pakistan People's Party called the bandh in Sindh, a stronghold of the party and the Bhutto family, to protest the 'state's excesses against peaceful party workers' who were on Friday prevented from joining a rally against the emergency in Rawalpindi.

Several hundred policemen surrounded Zardari House, Bhutto's residence, on Friday and prevented the 54-year-old former premier from going to the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi to lead the rally.

Hundreds of PPP workers, including women were also detained in the twin cities. Bhutto was freed from what the authorities described as 'protective custody' late in the evening.

Officials said she had been asked to stay within her home as she faced a threat from suicide attackers who had entered Islamabad.

PPP leaders said they would go ahead with next week's march from Lahore to Islamabad that will traverse Punjab province, the stronghold of the ruling PML-Q, to press for the end of the emergency imposed on November 3.

Bhutto, whose detention in her home on Friday was condemned by Western powers, is also expected to meet diplomats in the capital to discuss the emergency and the political situation in Pakistan.

Police on Saturday said Bhutto was free to go anywhere.