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Bhutto pledges to continue fight for democracy in Pakistan

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Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, who has been placed under house arrest, said on Friday she was determined to continue the struggle for democratic reform in the country.
ISLAMABAD, November 9 (RIA Novosti) - Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, who has been placed under house arrest, said on Friday she was determined to continue the struggle for democratic reform in the country.

The ex-premier, who returned to Pakistan after more than eight years of self-imposed exile last month, attempted to attend a rally in Rawalpindi, near the capital, Islamabad, against the current state of emergency, but her house has been cordoned off by police.

"I have returned to Pakistan to fight against extremism and for democracy," Bhutto told supporters gathered in front of her house.

Bhutto, who heads the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), said around 5,000 opposition supporters were arrested on Thursday and Friday to prevent them from protesting against emergency rule. She also said she was planning to organize a protest march from Lahore to Islamabad on November 13.

However, authorities said that the security measures around Bhutto's residence in Islamabad had been enforced to ensure her safety in the light of recent terrorist attacks against the opposition leader.

Two blasts that rocked Karachi in October left 140 people dead and over 500 injured as hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets to greet Bhutto on her homecoming.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency in the country last Saturday, citing a dangerous rise in militant activity.

According to Pakistan's Interior Ministry, about 670 people in Pakistan have been killed and over 1,800 injured in a total of 157 terrorist attacks this year.

In the most recent terrorist attack, a suicide bombing near the house of Minister for Political Affairs Amir Muqam in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed four people on Friday, although the minister was unhurt.

Musharraf earlier banned the Supreme Court from overturning the emergency order, blocked non-state TV broadcasts, and restricted freedom of movement in the country, measures which all have been widely condemned by the international community.

Bhutto called the imposed emergency rule "unconstitutional," and demanded that Musharraf set a concrete date for general elections, step down as army chief, and release political detainees arrested over the last few days.

"A military regime cannot fight against extremists, because it is caught in anti-constitutional activities itself," she said.

Following a meeting of the National Security Council on Thursday, President Musharraf said that parliamentary elections, originally set for January, would be delayed for no more than a month, Pakistan state media reported.

Benazir Bhutto has served as Pakistan's prime minister on two separate occasions. However, both her previous governments were brought down amid corruption allegations and she went into self-imposed exile in 1999. She has dismissed the corruption allegations against her as politically motivated.

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