Pakistan put airports on alert and detained hundreds of opposition supporters yesterday on the eve of defiant former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif's planned return to challenge Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
Sharif, the man Musharraf replaced in a 1999 coup, has defied international appeals to stay away and could face immediate deportation to his Saudi Arabian home-in-exile or even be arrested when he flies to Pakistan today.
Sharif's return threatens to further destabilize the nuclear-armed Islamic republic ahead of elections in coming months as Musharraf's popularity continues to fall.
An apparently nervous administration has ordered a police crackdown against members of Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party.
Party leaders claim more than 2,000 have been arrested.
"Despite hurdles and the arrest of more than 2,000 people, our workers will reach the airport in large numbers," senior party official Saad Rafiq said, adding that several hundred people were seized overnight.
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