Friday September 3 11:26 AM ET
KARACHI (Reuters) - Police fired warning shots into the air and blocked opposition supporters from reaching the site of a planned anti-government rally in Karachi Friday, witnesses said.
They said leaders of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) along with dozens of supporters were stopped about 400 yards from the demonstration site in the port city by a wall of several hundred armed police and armored personnel carriers.
The attempted protest comes two days after tens of thousands of opposition party and hard-line Islamic group supporters joined forces in a protest 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.
Outwardly Sharif has played down the significance of the demonstrations, saying they cannot reverse the huge majority he won in February 1997 elections.
In Friday's protest, witnesses said tension rose when police fired two warning shots to stop a group of MQM supporters from shouting party slogans.
There were no reported injuries.
The protest was seen as precursor to a nation-wide strike called for Saturday by trading groups to protest against a proposed general sales tax, and a province-wide strike called for Sindh by the MQM and Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party.