The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Islamabad

Pakistani police placed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under house arrest Friday, uncoiling barbed wire in front of her Islamabad villa, and reportedly rounded up 5,000 of her supporters to block a mass protest against emergency rule.

Benazir tried to leave by car but was blocked by police after a scuffle with her supporters who tried to remove a barricade. The former prime minister had planned to address a rally in nearby Rawalpindi, defying a ban on public gatherings. Kamal Shah, a top Interior Ministry official, said a district magistrate had served a "detention order" on Bhutto - who last month escaped assassination by suicide bombers - so she could not leave her home. However, speaking by phone from the scene, Benazir said that no arrest papers had been served on her.

"If I'm arrested the People's Party workers will continue to fight for democracy and the rule of law," she told reporters who heard the call via speakerphone. She said that 5,000 members of her party had already been detained. Afzal Khan, an Islamabad police official, said that officers blocking her way were following a government order under which she could not hold the rally.

The Rawalpindi mayor said there was a "credible report" that six or seven suicide bombers were preparing to attack it.

The crackdown showed that a week after suspending the constitution and assuming emergency powers, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was not letting up on his political rivals despite saying Thursday that parliamentary elections would go ahead by mid-February, just a month later than originally planned. His announcement came after intense pressure from the United States, his chief international supporter.

Friday's moves will further sour relations with Bhutto and hurt the prospects of the two pro-Western leaders forming a postelection alliance against religious extremism.

Bhutto tried to leave for Rawalpindi inside a white Landcruiser with tinted windows, surrounded by about 50 supporters, including several lawmakers, an intelligence official at the scene said. Other Benazir supporters pulled at a barbed wire barricade on the street to make way for the vehicle, but were blocked by police, the official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media. Benazir's vehicle only managed to travel about 40 meters (yards) before it was

"We are trying to pass through because we want to reach Rawalpindi. There was a baton charge. There was a barbed wire. People in Kashmir were also stopped from reaching here. Those who can reach Rawalpindi, they should try to reach there," Benazir later told private Geo TV.

"The government says that some suicide bombers have entered Islamabad. If they have any such information, then why can't they arrest them?" she said.

She also demanded that Musharraf step down as army chief by next week when his presidential term expires.

"He should be retired as the chief of army staff by Nov. 15," she told reporters.

Dozens of police, some in riot gear, were deployed at Benazir's residence by barbed wire and steel and concrete barriers. Other security personnel patrolled on motorcycles, horseback and in armored vehicles. At least 12 Benazir supporters were arrested, including a woman who showed up with flowers. In Rawalpindi, about 200 of Bhutto supporters were dispersed by police using tear and batons. Dozens were arrested, an Associated Press Television News cameraman saw.

In a second clash, about two dozen supporters burst out of an alley, shouting, "Long Live Benazir!" Police, some on horseback, others banging their shields, chased them away. Other supporters set a tire and garbage on fire. Police fired tear gas shells from an armored personnel carrier, and the protesters pelted the police with stones.

In the northwestern city of Peshawar, police used force to disperse about 300 Bhutto trying to reach Rawalpindi. About 25 were arrested.

A report from Peshwar adds: A suicide bombing at the home of a Pakistan government minister in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed at least four people on Friday, police said. The minister was unhurt.

The attack happened at the residence of the minister for political affairs, Amir Muqam, and also wounded three people, said Aslam Khan, a local police official.

Muqam said he saw two or three dead in the blast - members of his security staff - and one of his brothers was wounded. "I saw two, three bodies on my verandah," Muqam said on state-run Pakistan Television.

Muqam is the provincial chief of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party and a close ally of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Tahir Khan, the city's police chief, said it was a suicide attack.

"I can confirm that it was a suicide attack, but the minister is safe," he said.

He said the attacker, who was on foot, blew himself up just inside the gate of Muqam's house when security personnel tried to stop him.

Pakistan, particularly its northwest, has been wracked by Islamic militant violence, with bombings targeting the military or top officials, and clashes between security forces and pro-Taliban fighters.

In April, a suicide bomber blew himself up just a few feet from Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao, killing 28 other people, at a political rally in the northwestern town of Charsadda. Sherpao, Pakistan's top civilian security official, escaped with minor injuries.

Also Friday, a bomb exploded at a military checkpoint, killing at least two soldiers and wounding five in Kambal, a town about 200 kilometers (120 miles) north of Peshawar, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said. He said the victims were from the paramilitary Frontier Corps.

Amid the deteriorating security, authorities evacuated to Islamabad about 300 Chinese, mostly engineers working on three hydropower projects in remote parts of North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan.

Ataullah Wazir, a senior police official, said the Chinese were shifted for "security reasons," but did not say if there were any specific threats against them.

In 2004, Taliban militants kidnapped two Chinese engineers in the lawless tribal region of South Waziristan. One of the Chinese was freed, but the other was killed in a rescue attempt by Pakistani commandos.

Three Chinese engineers were also killed last year by another group of insurgents in the neighboring province of Baluchistan, where a separatist rebellion is festering.

Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in the war on terror, has close and long-standing ties to China.