ISLAMABAD, 27 February 2006 — Thousands of people rallied in southern Pakistan yesterday against cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

But police swung into action and arrested a top Islamic leader and detained several others including cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan for defying a ban on the rally over cartoons, sources said.

Qazi Hussain Ahmed, chief of the six-party Muttaheda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) alliance, was taken into custody after he emerged from his party’s headquarters at Mansoora in Lahore.

His supporters, shouting “We will protect honor and dignity of the Prophet!,” broke through a police cordon and snatched bamboo batons from them, witnesses said.

Ahmed and some 1,000 party workers staged a sit-in on the road before he drove toward the venue of the planned rally. But security forces intercepted his car and took him to a police station, officials said.

Police using batons dispersed the crowd.

Imran was also detained when he tried to join the rally in Lahore, his Movement for Justice party said.

Earlier, MMA Secretary-General Maulana Fazlur Rehman was stopped at Islamabad Airport while attempting to board a flight to Lahore.

“This protest will continue until European countries and the newspapers which published these cartoons offer an apology to the Muslim world,” Fazlur Rehman said from Islamabad in a phone call relayed by loudspeakers to the crowd.

The authorities also barred the entry to Lahore of Makhdoom Amin Fahim, chairman of former Premier Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party, who had said his party would join the protest.

Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, founder of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Taiba group, was also detained in Lahore.

Police had earlier unrolled coils of barbed wire on roads leading to Mansoora where some hundred people at the party compound chanted slogans against Denmark, where the cartoons were first published.

Ahmed, who was detained twice to foil similar rallies last week, had vowed that the rally against the “blasphemous cartoons” would go ahead despite a government ban on protests.

The venue at Nasir Bagh was cordoned off and the main Mall Road had also been blocked after violence in the city’s key commercial district on Feb. 14, when protesters torched shops and vehicles.

Police detained some 30 people who came to Nasir Bagh, witnesses said. Ahmed claimed 150 people were detained in Lahore on the eve of the rally.

“Such steps will escalate public anger,” MMA spokesman Shahid Shamsi said.

Police and paramilitary soldiers guarded radio and television stations, banks, hotels, restaurants and gas stations.

“We will not allow violence, we have to take steps to maintain peace,” Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said.

Shouting “Death to America,” “Death to Denmark” and “Death to European countries,” more than 25,000 people rallied in Karachi to denounce the cartoons.

The protests have cooled off in recent days but the MMA has called for a nationwide strike on March 3, just before an expected visit to Islamabad by US President George W. Bush.

“This movement will not end after the March 3 protest, it will continue until we get rid of present rulers,” Ahmed said before his arrest.