LAHORE, Pakistan – The opposition politician Imran Khan emerged from hiding yesterday to the cheers of hundreds of students protesting against President Pervez Musharraf at a university here but was then seized by hard-line students and turned over to police.
Khan – a politician and former cricket player, and a vociferous opponent of Musharraf – had been the only major opposition political figure not placed under detention since Musharraf imposed emergency rule Nov. 3.
As Khan was arrested yesterday, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who on Tuesday called on Musharraf to resign, began the difficult task of trying to rally Pakistan's fractious opposition into a coordinated movement.
Bhutto, who is under house arrest in Lahore, has contacted the main opposition parties, said her party spokeswoman, Sherry Rehman. Rehman said Bhutto has received a favorable response. “She wants a one-point agenda: the restoration of democracy,” Rehman said.
The move is an attempt to create a united front against Musharraf and increase pressure on him to end emergency rule, under which the constitution has been suspended and thousands of people placed under detention or house arrest.
Bhutto returned to Pakistan in October – at the encouragement of U.S. and British officials – hoping to run in elections that might make her prime minister while lending a democratic face to Musharraf's increasingly unpopular military government. But that arrangement seems to have collapsed.
On Tuesday, Bhutto called for Musharraf to resign from his posts of chief of the army staff and president and restore the country to democratic rule.
Yesterday, Musharraf said in an interview with The Associated Press that he would quit as army chief by the end of November.
Also yesterday, at least 33 fighters loyal to a pro-Taliban rebel cleric were killed in a series of attacks in Swat, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said today.
Khan's appearance at University of the Punjab, one of the country's oldest universities, was coupled with high drama. Hundreds of students waited for him in front of Faisal Auditorium, chanting slogans like “Go Musharraf, go,” and “No to emergency!”
Muhammad Asim, 25, a student of administrative sciences, said he was protesting the suspension of fundamental human rights in Pakistan. He was holding a placard that read, “Our hearts are crying with indignation.”
Students affiliated with the radical Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami were also at the rally, chanting slogans against President Bush and the United States.
Khan, a symbol of defiance for youth here, was expected to “make a speech to the students to rally them against Musharraf,” said Saloni Bokhari, the president of the women's wing of Khan's political party.
About noon, to the delight of his student supporters, Khan suddenly appeared. Several students hoisted the opposition leader triumphantly into the air. Khan, visibly pleased by the reception, was making a victory sign when he was seized by students belonging to Islami Jamiat-e-Talba, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami.
The students hustled Khan into a nearby building and detained him there for about an hour.
“We have taken him inside to prevent him from arrest and to make sure he joins the protest in an organized manner,” said one of the Islami Jamiat-e-Talba students.
Khan was then put in a white van and driven off campus, where police arrested him.
