WIRE:09/04/1999
01:29:00 ET
Karachi
quiet amid tight security as strike begins
KARACHI, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Hundreds of paramilitary Rangers and police guarded roads in Karachi to avert violence on Saturday at the start of a strike called by the opposition parties and traders, witnesses said.
They said Rangers were patrolling the mostly deserted main roads in armoured vehicles and police armed with assault rifles were seen guarding street corners.
Police said 10 vehicles were set afire overnight as tension increased ahead of the strike.
Traders are protesting a proposed general sales tax, and the opposition called the strike to protest the government's handling of affairs in Sindh province where direct rule was imposed to crack down on violence that killed over 800 people last year.
The nation-wide strike call by traders comes several days after an estimated 40,000 opposition party and hardline Islamic group supporters joined forces in a demonstration in central Lahore, calling on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to step down.
Opposition parties have rallied behind protests by Islamic groups to add weight to a "Sharif Out" campaign they have waged since he ordered guerrillas to leave strategic heights in the disputed Kashmir region in July under world pressure to head off a fourth Indo-Pakistani war.
Sharif has played down the protests, saying they cannot reverse the huge majority he won in February 1997 elections.
Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto issued a statement accusing the government of rounding up thousands of her Pakistan Peoples Party supporters in the run-up to the strike.
"The Nawaz regime is once again resorting to brute force to suppress democracy," Bhutto said.
The strike comes one day after hundreds of police delayed an anti-government rally in Karachi by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.
Saturday's strike was called by traders to protest against the imposition of a 15 percent general sales tax, a demand from the International Monetary Fund as part of its loan programme for Pakistan.