From: zabdi@bucknell.edu (Zakir Abdi)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.pakistan
Subject: Top Opposition Leaders to ride Protest Train...
Date: 23 Nov 1992 14:02:38 GMT
Organization: Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: vega.cs.bucknell.edu
Keywords: Hydrocarbons....


	Dear Pakistani Brothers & Sisters,


	"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (UPI) -- Pakistan's two main opposition parties
met in the southern city of Karachi Sunday and decided to pool resources
for a cross-country protest train they hope will lead to a popular
uprising against the government.
	More than a dozen top opposition leaders held a news conference and
said they were set to board the train, which leaves Karachi Monday.
	The two groups -- Peoples Democratic Alliance and the National
Democratic Alliance -- arranged for the leaders to address crowds at
every major station on their 750-mile journey.
	Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was expelled from the
capital Islamabad for one month for leading a protest march Wednesday,
was also due to board the train. However, she was to end her journey at
Jhelum, about 60 miles before Islamabad.
	Opposition leaders said they would break their journey for two days
at Lahore, the capital of Pakistan's Punjab province, and start the
second phase of their protest from Lahore to Rawalpindi on Nov. 26.
	A spokesman for the opposition said during their two-day stay in
Lahore, ``the leaders will continue their anti-government campaign.''
	He said he did not want to disclose what the leaders would do in
Lahore because ``we now want to maintain an element of surprise,''
adding the government has been ruthless in crushing opposition protests
and leaders were evolving a new strategy to cope with the problem.
	Bhutto, who will play a key role in the trek, claimed the government
has arrested about 25,000 people since the opposition launched its
campaign against the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on
Wednesday.
	Using thousands of police and paramilitary troops, the government has
so far thwarted opposition efforts to stir a public uprising against the
prime minister.
	Describing the government's actions against the opposition as 
``state-terrorism,'' Bhutto said Sharif was ``pushing the country into a
state of civil war.''
	Although Sharif has said publicly he is ready to meet with opposition
leaders, Bhutto said so far the prime minister has made no formal offers
to hold such talks.
	Bhutto chastised the government for detaining protesters.
	``About 10,000 opposition workers went to Islamabad Wednesday to
participate in the protest march. About 5,000 are still languishing in
prisons in the capital,'' Bhutto said.
	The opposition leaders said they had no plans to address public
rallies in the southern Sindh province, where the army is conducting
operations against gangs of robbers and kidnappers.
	``We realize that the situation in Sindh is serious and we don't want
to cause fresh problems there,'' said a spokesman for the opposition.
	The army, which ruled Pakistan for 25 of its 45 years since
independence, still has much political clout. Both the opposition and
the government avoid any direct confrontation with the military."


	Khuda Hafiz

	Zakir Abdi [pray for Pakistan]