Bhutto's party starts protest without her
Posted: 13 November 2007 1637 hrs

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LAHORE, Pakistan: Supporters of Benazir Bhutto began a protest without her on Tuesday as dozens of cars set off from Lahore while she remained under house arrest, her party and police said.

The Pakistan People's Party motorcade departed from Lahore towards the eastern town of Kasur near the Indian border, party official Shah Mahmoud Qureshi told reporters.

"There is a caravan of more than 100 cars heading out of Lahore. We are on our way," Shah said. A party statement said there were also "thousands of followers."

Police confirmed several dozen cars and an unspecified number of protesters had formed a caravan.

Bhutto called the "long march" to rally against a state of emergency imposed by President Pervez Musharraf but was detained at the house of a party worker in the early hours of Tuesday.

Bhutto on Tuesday called on the international community to stop backing Musharraf,
telling reporters it was time for him to quit as president and army chief.

"General Musharraf must quit. He must quit as president and as chief of army staff," she said in a telephone interview from house arrest in the eastern city of Lahore.

"I call on the international community to stop backing him, to stop backing the man whose dictatorship threatens to engulf this nuclear-armed state in chaos," Bhutto added.

- AFP/yb