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 Bhutto tried twice to leave by car but was blocked by police after a scuffle with her supporters who tried to remove a barricade. The former prime minister had planned to address a rally in nearby Rawalpindi, defying a ban on public gatherings.
A suicide bombing at the home of a Pakistan government minister in the northwestern city of Peshawar, meanwhile, killed at least four people, police said. The minister was unhurt.
Also Friday, a bomb exploded at a military checkpoint, killing at least two soldiers and wounding five in Kambal, a town about 120 miles north of Peshawar, an army spokesman said. He said the victims were from the paramilitary Frontier Corps.
In Rawalpindi, about 200 Bhutto supporters were dispersed by police using tear and batons. Dozens were arrested, an AP Television News cameraman reported. Later, there was a second, smaller clash between protesters and police. Aside from those incidents, the streets of the garrison city were mostly deserted.
Kamal Shah, a top Interior Ministry official, said a district magistrate had served a "detention order" on Bhutto
-- who last month escaped an assassination attempt by suicide bombers, an attack that killed more than 145 people
-- so she could not leave her home.
However, speaking by phone from the scene, Bhutto said that no arrest papers had been served on her.
"If I'm arrested the People's Party of Pakistan workers will continue to fight for democracy and the rule of law," she told reporters who heard the call via speakerphone. She said that 5,000 members of her party had already been detained.
Afzal Khan, an Islamabad police official, said that officers blocking Bhutto's way were following a government order under which she could not hold the rally. The Rawalpindi mayor said there was a "credible report" that six or seven suicide bombers were preparing to attack it.
The crackdown showed that a week after suspending the constitution and assuming emergency powers, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was not letting up on his political rivals despite saying Thursday that parliamentary elections would go ahead by mid-February, just a month later than originally planned. His announcement came after intense pressure from the United States, his chief international supporter.
Friday's moves will further sour relations with Bhutto and hurt the prospects of the two pro-Western leaders forming a postelection alliance against religious extremism.
Bhutto tried twice to leave for Rawalpindi inside a white Landcruiser with tinted windows, surrounded by about 50 supporters, including several lawmakers, an intelligence official at the scene said.
On the first attempt, Bhutto supporters pulled at a barbed wire barricade on the street to make way for the vehicle, but were blocked by police, the official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media. Bhutto's vehicle only managed to travel about 40 yards before it was stopped.
"We are trying to pass through because we want to reach Rawalpindi. There was a baton charge. There was a barbed wire. People in Kashmir were also stopped from reaching here. Those who can reach Rawalpindi, they should try to reach there," Bhutto later told private Geo TV.
During her second attempt to leave, she addressed police through a loudspeaker, telling them: "Give me way. Do not raise hands on women. You are Muslims. This is un-Islamic. We are peaceful."
Police responded by blocking her way with an armored vehicle. So she got out, and joined her supporters, who chanted "Go Musharraf Go!"
"The government says that some suicide bombers have entered Islamabad. If they have any such information, then why can't they arrest them?" Bhutto said.
She also demanded that Musharraf step down as army chief by next week when his presidential term expires.
"He should be retired as the chief of army staff by Nov. 15," she told reporters.
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 Dozens of police, some in riot gear, were deployed at Bhutto's residence by barbed wire and steel and concrete barriers. Other security personnel patrolled on motorcycles, horseback and in armored vehicles. At least 12 Bhutto supporters were arrested, including a woman who showed up with flowers.
In the second clash in Rawalpindi, about two dozen supporters burst out of an alley, shouting, "Long Live Bhutto!" Police, some on horseback, others banging their shields, chased them away. Other supporters set a tire and garbage on fire. Police fired tear gas shells from an armored personnel carrier, and the protesters pelted the police with stones.
In the northwestern city of Peshawar, police used force to disperse about 300 Bhutto trying to reach Rawalpindi. About 25 were arrested.
Bhutto's decision to join in anti-government protests against Musharraf is another blow to the military leader whose popularity has plummeted this year amid growing resentment of military rule and failure by his government to curb increasing violence by Islamic militants.
Critics say that Musharraf -- who seized power in a 1999 coup -- declared the emergency and ousted independent-minded judges to maintain his own grip on power. The moves came days before the Supreme Court was expected to rule on whether his recent re-election as president was legal.
Musharraf said the declaration of emergency last Saturday was needed to put an end to political instability and to fight Taliban and al-Qaida-linked militants.
But most of the thousands of people rounded up countrywide have been moderates
-- lawyers and activists from secular opposition parties. Police have squashed attempts by lawyers to protest. Hundreds of students have also stage demonstrations on university campuses.
Across the normally bustling city of Rawalpindi, where the headquarters of Pakistan's army and Musharraf's residence is located, streets were largely deserted, aside from the two clashes with police. Friday also marked a public holiday in Pakistan. The road to Islamabad had been blocked by two tractor trailers and a metal gate.
"Since the government has not given permission for it due to security reasons, we will not allow any one to gather here for the rally," the city's police chief, Saud Aziz, told The Associated Press.
Police were also on the lookout for potential suicide bombers, who Aziz warned Thursday were preparing a repeat of the Oct. 18 bombing of Bhutto's jubilant homecoming procession in the southern city of Karachi after eight years of exile. She escaped unharmed, but more than 145 people died in the attack, blamed on Islamic militants.
Rawalpindi has also been hit by a series of suicide attacks, targeting the military.
Bhutto's party said its 5,000 arrested supporters were picked up in the last three days across the eastern province of Punjab.
"It is a massive crackdown on our party," said Raja Javed Ashraf, a PPP lawmaker.
The government offered no immediate public comment. But a security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists, said only 1,000 Bhutto supporters had been detained.
[Associated
Press; By ZARAR KHAN]
Associated Press writers Stephen Graham in Rawalpindi, Riaz Khan in Peshawar and Munir Ahmad and Sadaqat Jan in Islamabad contributed to this story.
Copyright 2007 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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