Violent Bhutto protests shake state govt

Press, 7 April 1979, Page 8

Violent Bhutto protests shake state govt

NZPA-Reuter Islamabad The Punjab state governi ment in Pakistan says it will ‘ take serious action to quell i violent protests against the 'execution of the former I Prime Minister. Zulfikaf Ali (Bhutto, two days ago. ’ Its announcement implied i soldiers and policemen would 'open fire on demonstrators if j violence on Thursday in ' Rawalpindi and several other 'cities was repeated. But thousands of Pakistanis seemed certain to join protest marches late yesterday immediately they left mosques after the traditional Friday prayers. The police on Thursday used tear-gas and baton charges to try to disperse demonstrators storming through the streets of Rawalpindi.

A mob of about 8000 stoned the police and burned down the offices of the proGovernment daily “Jang” newspaper, trapping the staff inside. Firemen eventually rescued the workers. At a demonstration in Rawalpindi’s Liaqat Park, weeping women grieving for Mr Bhutto literally tore their hair out and one had to be restrained from banging her head against a tree. “He was lovely. I loved him,” one toothless old man

said, tears streaming down his cheeks. “Now they’ve killed him. Tell the world.”

i Mr Bhutto was hanged — despite appeals from world statesmen to President Zia-Ul-Haq to spare his life — the murder of a political opponent, a charge he denied. General Zia said in a telephone interview broadcast on British commercial television on Thursday night he had a. very strong conviction he had done the right thing in not granting clemency to Mr Bhutto.

The general, who led the 1977 military coup d’etat which overthrew Mr Bhutto, said the decision was in the interests of Pakistan. Mr Bhutto had indulged in criminal acts, he said. “I have tried to show that nobody, high or low, is above the law, and this should be a unifying factor rather than a factor for the division of the country.” Most of Thursday’s violence erupted after prayer meetings of Mr Bhutto’s supporters. In Lahore, a crowd of about 400 went on a stonethrowing rampage, damaging two buses and several cars. In Nawab Shah, 320 km from Karachi, 30 people were arrested after demonstrators ransacked a bank and beat up a magistrate.

About 4000 people assembled in Faislabad for prayers and the police charged with batons to disperse a group who stayed behind afterwards throwing, stones.

The police had also intervened in disturbances in Multana, where four buses were damaged, Sialkot, and Gujranwala, a Government statement said.

In India, frenzied crowds mourning the hanging have attacked the mosques of a non-conformist Islamic sect and the offices of a political party whose. Pakistani counterpart supported the execution in the northern state of Jammu and in pre dominantly Muslim Kashmir. Witnesses to the execution have said that Mr Bhutto believed right to the last that preparations for his hanging were a charade aimed simply at terrifying him. They said fefagt Mr Bhutto had refused to to the gallows and so wasjpound to a stretcher and carried the few hundred metres from his cell. At one point he was given an injection which was probably a sedative, the witnesses added.

Egypt, a predominantly : Muslim State, and Roman Catholic Poland have added . their voices to those condemning the execution.