Opposition intensifies unity bid

Islamabad: Sporadic protests against emergency rule continued in Pakistan for the eleventh day, while the Pakistan Peoples Party of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto said it had stepped up efforts to forge a united opposition front.

Bhutto remained under house detention in Punjab province capital of Lahore, where cricket legend and head of Tehreek-e-Insaaf party had been sent to Kot Lakhpat jail after being charged under anti-terrorism laws.

Police yesterday baton-charged dozens of workers of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) of exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province and arrested a number of protesters including provincial party leader Anwar Kamal Marwat.

Reports said police foiled attempts by PPP workers to take out processions in a Lahore suburb as well as in the Punjab city of Faisalabad and arrested nearly 40 people including local party leaders.

PPP has said thousands of its workers have been arrested throughout the country in the ongoing crackdown.

Diplomat

In the frontier province, lawyers once again boycotted courts after a day's break to vent their anger over emergency rule and dismissal of judges under the provisional constitution order that General Pervez Musharraf promulgated on November 3 after suspending the constitution.

The Tehreek-e-Insaaf announced it would hold demonstrations in different cities today against the incarceration of its leader, who was arrested in Lahore after a visit to the Punjab University to urge students to join the anti-emergency campaign.

In Lahore, US consul general Brian D. Hunt met Bhutto yesterday and told her Washington wanted Musharraf to quit the post of army chief and lift the emergency, media reports said.

Police allowed him to enter the house where Bhutto is confined after he showed them an authorisation from the authorities. The diplomat told reporters he had also met other politicians to apprise them of US concerns over extra-constitutional steps in Pakistan.

His meeting with Bhutto comes ahead of the visit this week of US Assistant Secretary of State John Negroponte to Pakistan during which he is expected to convey a message to Musharraf from US President George W. Bush urging to the Pakistani leader to lift emergency, restore the constitution and release arrested people.

KARACHI
Two Teens killed

Two boys, aged 12 and 14, were killed yesterday in an exchange of fire between police and gunmen as supporters of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party held protest demonstrations in the Lyari neighbourhood of Karachi.

At least four policemen were also wounded after being hit by bullets, as life in the area dominated by PPP remained at a standstill for the third consecutive day.

Police said the two boys were killed in firing by unidentified gunmen during the protests against the emergency rule imposed by President Pervez Musharraf on November 3 citing terrorist threat.

They said police also came under fire, resulting in injuries to four. A day earlier, two police stations came under fire in the same neighbourhood, but there were no casualties then.

- Muazzam Khan, Correspondent