Pakistani relatives protest over missing detainees

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan, Dec 28 (Reuters) Pakistani police broke up a protest today by dozens relatives of people who have disappeared, apparently after being detained.

The protesters had tried to deliver a petition at army headquarters.

International human rights groups say several hundred people have gone missing in Pakistan, many apparently held in connection with the war on terrorism.

About 50 protesters, most of them women and children, held a rally before trying to march to the army's headquarters in the city of Rawalpindi, near the capital, Islamabad.

Police roughed up several of the protesters and detained at least six of them after the protesters were stopped and tried to stage a sit-in on a road near the gates of the building, witnesses said.

''We just wanted to hold a peaceful march and hand over a memorandum to the vice chief of army staff demanding the release of our loved ones,'' one of the protesters, Amna Masood Janjua, later told reporters in Islamabad.

Janjua said her husband has been missing since July 2005 and she had been told by other people released from army custody that he was being held by the military, along with hundreds of others.

As well as people who have disappeared in connection with the war on terrorism, rights groups say journalists and activists linked to autonomy-seeking rebels in the southwestern province of Baluchistan have also been victims of ''enforced disappearances''.

Military spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.

The government denies violating human rights.

REUTERS PDM PM1905