House arrest order against Bhutto lifted

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Pakistani officials Friday lifted the house arrest order for Benazir Bhutto following a day-long standoff with the former prime minister and her supporters.

The lifting of the order came as Pakistan experienced its first deadly explosion since President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency six days ago, CNN reported.

The attack, possibly a suicide bomb, occurred at the home of of Amir Muqam, the country's minister for political affairs, in Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan. Police said it killed four people, but the minister was not harmed, CNN said.

Police barricaded Bhutto in her Islamabad villa, preventing her from traveling to Rawalpindi to lead a rally against the government and its crackdown. Riot police reportedly beat Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party supporters when about 50 tried to cut through the cordons of barbed wire around her home.

Bhutto, speaking with a megaphone near the breach, told police, "We are not the enemy; give us way."

Also Friday, the government took CNN and the BBC off air for a second time as part of a media blackout.