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Hyderabad: Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto took her election campaign into her heartland yesterday, telling thousands of cheering supporters that President Pervez Musharraf's allies would be defeated.
Two-time prime minister Bhutto, who returned to Pakistan from eight years of self-imposed exile in October, said a "dark era of dictatorship" was about to end.
"There is no place left for the Q League," Bhutto told the crowd of about 15,000 people, referring to the Pakistan Muslim League that backs Musharraf, at a rally on the outskirts of Hyderabad, in the southern province of Sindh.
Bhutto said her Pakistan's Peoples Party would emerge in first place from the January 8 general election, with the party of another opposition leader and two-time prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, coming second.
The election is a three-way race between Bhutto, Sharif and Musharraf's supporters. Analysts expect a hung parliament, with no side winning an outright majority.
Main base
Bhutto is the daughter of Pakistan's first popularly elected prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was executed by a military dictator in 1979.
Her main base of support is Sindh province, especially its rural areas where her land-owning family has its roots.
Bhutto referred to the rule of Musharraf and military rulers who preceded him as a "dark era of dictatorship, fundamentalism and anti-people forces".
"God willing, the sun of the power of the people will rise on January 8," she said, to shouts of "Long Live Bhutto".
Security was tight with hundreds of police on duty in Hyderabad city and at the rally ground next to a university. Party's security workers used metal detectors to check people entering the dusty ground bedecked with party flags.
The crowd appeared subdued yesterday and student Malook Zadi said some of her friends had not come because of security fears.
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