Hundreds of activists and local leaders from Pakistan’s Islamic political groups were in police custody last night after the government of General Pervez Musharraf, the military ruler, cracked down on an attempt to stage a large rally in protest against the cartoons of prophet Mohammed, first published in a Danish newspaper.
Riot police on Sunday fought off small groups of opposition protesters with tear gas and roads leading to Islamabad were blocked for those travelling to join the demonstrators.
In Lahore, Pakistan’s second large city, police encircled the suburb of Mansoorah, an Islamist stronghold, and the government ordered Qazi Hussain Ahmed, head of the Jamaat-I-islamist, to be to confined to house arrest for 30 days in Mansoorah.
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“We will carry on our struggle and defy the government,” Mr Ahmed told reporters shortly before being served a formal notice of house arrest.
In Islamabad, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, a coalition of six main Islamic groups, defied the ban on the rally. “We do not accept these orders,” he said.
Sunday’s protests came almost a week after a day of violence in Lahore when protesters torched businesses, cars and government property. The protests, though an expression of outrage against the publication of the cartoons, have prompted analysts’ warnings that they could mark the beginning of a campaign against Gen Musharraf’s pro-US regime.
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The Islamists have announced another protest next Sunday and a national strike on March 3 which may coincide with the planned visit to the country by George W. Bush, US president.
Opposition leaders said they were prepared to seize the opportunity provided by the current protests as they had provided an unprecedented chance to rally otherwise diverse groups against the government.
