Bhutto freed from house arrest

Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto is free from house arrest after she was prevented from leaving her home to address a rally.

Ms Bhutto earlier addressed crowds of supporters outside her home, standing in front of a barbed-wire barricade, after police stopped her from leaving the Islamabad residence.

Later, Aamir Ali Ahmed, Acting Deputy Commissioner of Islamabad, said: "The detention order has been withdrawn."

Scores of officers, some in riot gear, took up positions around the house, laying barbed wire and erecting concrete barriers earlier in the day.

And as her bullet-proof car tried to break through their ranks, Ms Bhutto appealed by megaphone: "Get out of the way. We are your sisters. My father laid down his life for you and this nation."

Ms Bhutto's close aide, Fehmida Mirza, who was with her, said the vehicle crossed one obstacle, but a police bus blocked the narrow road at the back of the house.

Officers also sealed off a park where she was due to hold her first rally since President Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule.

Her Pakistan People's Party claimed 5,000 of Ms Bhutto's supporters have been rounded up in the last three days.

General Musharraf has been under pressure to hold elections and step down as the country's army chief since Saturday, when he imposed the emergency measures, saying they were needed to put an end to political instability and to fight Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants.

Elsewhere, four people were killed in an explosion outside the house of a Pakistani government minister.

© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

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