From: zabdi@bucknell.edu (Zakir Abdi)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.pakistan
Subject: Benazir Bhutto arrested in Islamabad.
Keywords: Hydrocarbons...
Date: 18 Nov 92 15:28:59 GMT
Article-I.D.: coral.1ednfrINN7hg
Distribution: world
Organization: Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA
NNTP-Posting-Host: vega.cs.bucknell.edu


	ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (UPI) -- Pakistan's government and opposition were
headed Tuesday toward a major confrontation, with troops sealing off the
capital and opponents threatening to persist with a protest march until
they overthrow the prime minister.
	An alliance of about a dozen opposition parties headed by ousted
former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto asked thousands of supporters to
march Wednesday to Islamabad to force the government to resign.
	Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his troops reportedly already making
arrests, tearing apart roadways and a rally site and turning away
hundreds of vehicles headed toward the capital, rejected the march as 
``a call to rebellion.''
	Opposition sources nevertheless claimed about 26,000 workers already
had reached Islamabad and the adjacent city of Rawalpindi, and Bhutto
promised all top opposition leaders would reach the rally site at
Liaquat Garden in Rawalpindi as scheduled by Wednesday afternoon.
	``But if we don't,'' Bhutto said in an appeal to opposition
supporters, ``then assume that we have been arrested.
	``If we are arrested, I appeal to you to start marching toward
Islamabad,'' said Bhutto, whose government was thrown out of office
without trial over allegations of corruption.
	``Even if a single leader is out of prison, he will come to lead you,
'' she said. ``If we can't, we will send our second cadres, but if you
don't see anybody, take charge of the movement and launch your struggle
against this corrupt government.
	``If you can't march on the 18th, do it on the 19th, 20th or 21st,''
Bhutto said. ``Keep on trying until you achieve your objective.
	``If we keep up the momentum,'' she said, ``in a week there will be
no Nawaz Sharif.''
	Amid the growing tension, police and paramilitary troops blocked
virtually all access to Islamabad, checking every vehicle leaving or
coming to the capital.
	Hundreds of people who did not have national identity cards were
detained and hundreds more who could not give a valid reason for
visiting the capital were sent back home, the opposition said.
	The police seized hundreds of buses and trucks bringing opposition
workers from the southern provinces of Baluchistan and Sindh, Bhutto's
home province, she said.
	The government also blew up bridges and made mud dikes on roads
elsewhere in Punjab and frontier provinces to stop any group movement,
Bhutto said.
	Bhutto, saying police also built a 15-foot wall on the main highway
that links Islamabad with the northwest frontier province, described the
government's ``overreaction'' as ``a moral victory for the opposition.''
	``The police have surrounded all major cities and are not allowing
people to come out,'' she said.
	The army surrounded all sensitive installations, with Interior
Minister Chaudhry Shujaat telling the Senate the opposition was bringing
500 trained saboteurs to Islamabad to carry out terrorist attacks.
	Bhutto said she welcomed the army's deployment at sensitive places
but for a different reason. ``The government has plans to carry out
terrorist attacks against sensitive installations and blame the
opposition,'' she said.
	Police also surrounded the rally site at Liaquat Garden and removed
opposition banners and the stage built for the event. They also removed
the public address system and arrested the owner of the firm that
provided it, opposition leaders said.
	The government expressed confidence it would overcome the crisis. 
``People have rejected the politics of agitation,'' Sharif said. ``The
politics of violence has no place in the country.
	``The opposition has threatened to attack and attack and capture
parliament and other government buildings,'' he said. ``We can't allow
saboteurs to take the entire nation hostage.''

	Also this morning I saw a three minutes news clip on CNN about that 
	demonstration in Islamabad.  The arrest of Benazir Bhutto is not yet 
	conformed. But she told CNN reporter that 15,000 workers had been 
	arrested by Nawaz Sharif's police.