ISLAMABAD, Nov 9: Hundreds of policemen on Friday laid a virtual siege to Benazir Bhutto’s residence in Islamabad and around Rawalpindi’s Liaquat Bagh, frustrating the People’s Party’s plan to hold a public meeting in protest against the proclamation of a state of emergency.

The party’s supporters battled police throughout the day to break the siege around their leader’s residence, but in vain.

The People’s Party said more than 5,000 of its workers had been arrested across the country, the majority in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. On the other hand, the government claimed that only a “few dozen” PPP workers had been detained after they attacked police and tried to damage public property.

In what appeared to be the first clear sign of confrontation between Ms Bhutto and the government, the PPP chairperson kept the entire Islamabad administration on tenterhooks throughout the day as she made several attempts to break the security cordon and reach Rawalpindi’s Liaquat Bagh.

Defying an attempt by a magistrate to serve a detention order on her, Ms Bhutto at one point even tried to force her way through barbed wire, but after being blocked by police, she used a public address system installed on her vehicle to speak to her supporters and journalists.

Ms Bhutto said she had not received any arrest warrants, alleging that she had been stopped illegally by police.

She criticised President Gen Pervez Musharraf and called for relentless agitation to bring about an end to emergency and the restoration of the Constitution.

Small groups of PPP activists kept appearing from different sides on the main road in the capital’s F-8 sector, raising slogans against the president and attempting to go towards Ms Bhutto’s residence.

However, within minutes they were picked up by police and thrown onto waiting vans to be whisked away to a police station.

Rawalpindi and its vicinity were, to all intent and purposes, under curfew as the PPP activists’ determination to reach Liaquat Bagh triggered pitched battles with the police. Police took into custody an unknown number of the party’s leaders and workers.

Street clashes between PPP supporters and police took place in Fawara Chowk, Katchery Chowk, Committee Chowk and Arya Mohalla. A number of people from both sides were injured after rocks were thrown at them.

Since Thursday night, the authorities had started blocking roads with containers, huge cement blocks, trucks and barbed wires.

The PPP chairperson made at least three attempts to break the police cordon, but failed to do so owing to the deployment of hundreds of police personnel and commandoes in civvies around her residence. The security personnel had put barbed wires and parked buses, armoured personnel carriers and other vehicles at the street’s exit points.

Once she tried to leave for Rawalpindi in a vehicle with her party stalwarts and parliamentarians. Ms Bhutto made several appeals to policemen through a megaphone to let her go. “I am fighting for the poor and downtrodden. As true sons of the soil policemen should support the political leadership.”

The party’s leaders and workers hung around the F-8 sector for over three hours. They managed to remove one of the barricades just outside Ms Bhutto’s residence, but yet another barricade obstructed her motorcade.

Ms Bhutto then stepped off the vehicle and spoke to reporters through a megaphone, asking Gen Musharraf to step down. “Either accede to the people’s demands or step down.”

She dismissed Gen Musharraf’s announcement of holding elections by Feb 15. “Elections are due by Jan 15 and should be held by this date.”

She vowed to struggle for the restoration of the Constitution. “Pakistan could face an Iraq-like situation if democracy is not restored and the dictatorship persists in stifling people’s voice and aspirations.”

Benazir Bhutto said that arrests of more than 5,000 PPP workers, detention of MPs, baton charge in different cities and roadblocks had proved that the government stood ‘paralysed’.

Ms Bhutto said she was aware of the threat to her personal security, but the threat to the future of the country was greater and that was why she had come out in the open to fight for the nation’s democratic rights.

She said Pakistan was under a grave threat as there was no writ of the state in some tribal agencies and in parts of the Frontier province. “The national flag has been lowered in Kalam, Madyan and other areas of Frontier. We cannot sit back and watch silently the disintegration of the state.”

She said she had worked out a roadmap with Gen Musharraf for a “peaceful transition to democracy” in the face of opposition from within her party, but the imposition of emergency and suspension of the Constitution had scuttled the plan. “Now there will be no talks with the government until the Constitution is restored and election schedule announced.”

The former prime minister said she was fighting a battle to save Pakistan from extremism. “Extremists from Tora Bora are advancing towards the NWFP. How can an army fight when it is confronting a pro-democracy movement?”

Ms Bhutto said momentum was building up at home and abroad against Gen Musharraf, vowing to go ahead with her plan to march on the capital from Lahore on Nov 13.

FOOD & WATER: PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar told Dawn that policemen manning the barricades had turned away a vehicle bringing food and water for about 80 persons, including Ms Bhutto. He said over 25 MPs of the party had been detained in police stations in Rawalpindi.

Some of the MPs arrested were Humera Alwani, Nishat Afza, Mehreen Bhutto, Fauzia Habib, Sham Mithani, Farheen Moghul, Shamim Ara, Shagufta Jumani and Sassi Palejo.

Mr Babar alleged a PPP rally was baton charged in Peshawar and a large number of people coming from Muzaffarabad and other parts of Azad Kashmir were stopped with “brute force”.

He denied that Ms Bhutto had been served with any detention order. He said the PPP chairperson would attend a reception on Saturday being hosted by her party for foreign diplomats based in Islamabad.

Prominent among those who were present at Ms Bhutto’s house were Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Raza Rabbani, Naheed Khan, Sherry Rehman, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Farzana Raja, Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Enver Baig.