Pakistan Riot Police Battle Protesters; 5 Reported Shot

LAHORE, Pakistan — Riot police battled with anti-government demonstrators Friday for a second straight day and witnesses said five people were shot. Opposition leaders issued a call for new nationwide protests to topple Pakistani President Zia ul-Haq.

Thousands of police wearing steel helmets and armed with clubs and rifles were deployed in Lahore and Karachi following protests Thursday that resulted in at least four deaths and the arrest of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

Despite the heavy police presence, groups of protesters on Friday blocked Karachi streets with burning debris. They hurled rocks and bricks at police, who responded with tear gas and baton charges.

The latest shootings occurred in the southern town of Thatta, according to witnesses. Police fired tear gas and charged at opposition marchers, and then both sides opened fire with guns. The five injured included two police officers, and two of the victims were in critical condition, the witnesses said.

An angry crowd also stormed and burned a jail near Thatta and freed 24 people who were among about 500 opposition leaders arrested Wednesday in government raids.

Opposition supporters in Badin, about 200 miles north of Karachi, stormed and burned a railway station, witnesses said.

Senior police officials in Lahore told a news conference that police were not responsible for the four deaths reported Thursday by local hospitals. Some opposition leaders put the number of dead at 11.

The U.S. government, which supports Zia, issued a statement expressing regret over the “numerous arrests in Pakistan and limitations placed on freedom of movement.”

U.S. ‘Distressed’

The statement, issued by State Department spokesman Bernard Kalb, said, “We were distressed to learn that yesterday’s demonstrations in Lahore were accompanied by the loss of life. It is the U.S. hope that the peaceful conditions which had heretofore characterized the transition from martial law to constitutional government will be quickly restored.”

The Movement for the Restoration of Democracy, an alliance of 11 opposition parties, said that nationwide rallies and marches are planned for Monday in a major drive to oust Zia.

The rallies and marches Thursday, the 39th anniversary of Pakistan’s independence from Britain, were banned after the opposition ignored a government appeal not to hold meetings that day.

Bhutto, 33, head of the Pakistan People’s Party, was arrested Thursday after she led a protest march in Karachi and addressed a rally. Officials said she would be detained for 30 days.

She is the daughter of the late Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was ousted by Zia in a 1977 military coup and was hanged two years later on a disputed charge of conspiring to kill a political foe.