Unruly Mob of Bhutto Backers Stalls Hearing

An unruly mob today broke down police barricades and stormed the courtroom where ousted Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was to stand trial for corruption.

Dozens of people, including policemen and journalists, were injured in the stampede, apparently aimed at delaying the court proceedings until after the Oct. 24 parliamentary elections.

Hundreds of police, armed with steel-tipped batons and automatic rifles stood by, prohibited by law from using force around the Punjab High Court.

Bhutto, pale and visibly shaken by the outburst, waited with her lawyers and bodyguards in a room adjacent to the courtroom.

After more than two hours of pandemonium, Justice Rashid Aziz Khan adjourned the hearing until Oct. 9, the day Bhutto is to stand trial before him on another corruption charge.

Police blamed Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party for the melee.

Her lawyers accused police commandos of triggering the violence to deliberately discredit the former prime minister and her party. The party seems to be gaining strength since the army-backed caretaker government resurrected the one-judge special tribunals to try members of Bhutto’s ousted government for corruption.