Asif Ali Zardari (centre) surrounded by policemen at Islamabad airport. (AFP)

Islamabad, Dec. 21 (Reuters): The husband of Pakistani Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was placed under house arrest today, less than a month after his release from jail raised hopes for reconciliation with President Pervez Musharraf.

Asif Ali Zardari, freed on bail on November 22 after eight years in jail on charges of corruption, murder and drug smuggling, was detained at Islamabad airport after arriving from Karachi.

Hours earlier, an anti-terrorism court in Karachi ordered his arrest for failing to appear at a bail hearing in a case in which he is accused of involvement in the murder of a high court judge and his son in Karachi in 1996.

The arrest dimmed hopes of reconciliation between former Prime Minister Bhutto?s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and military leader Musharraf, a key ally of Washington in the war on terror.

?We?re just following the court?s orders,? interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao told state television. ?When he was released on bail it was the order of the court and we abided by that and now the court in another case has cancelled his bail.?

PPP parliamentary leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim said the party planned protest rallies tomorrow: ?It?s an insult to democracy. It's the worst example of dictatorship.?

Zardari, investment minister in Bhutto?s government that ruled until 1996, holds no formal position in the PPP but had planned his trip to Islamabad to rally support for the party.

Before he landed in Islamabad, police used batons and lobbed tear gas to break up a crowd of about 500 supporters who were trying to enter the airport to greet him. Several windows were broken and at least 10 protesters were detained.

Zardari was flown back to Karachi under police guard and would be held under house arrest at his residence, Mushtaq Shah, a Karachi deputy police chief, said. Court officials said a new hearing would be held on January 8.

Zardari called his arrest ?political victimisation?.?The government has gone panicky. We have the support of the masses,? he said while being led off the plane in Karachi.

He maintained there had been no hearing in the murder case for the past five years, implying that it might have been scheduled to interfere with his planned trip.

?I see the hand of government behind this,? he said. ?Everybody should have the freedom of expression and movement.?

He called on supporters to remain united. ?We are ready to face the music. We have faced such ploys and tactics by the government in the past and are ready to face them in future.?

Zardari was freed last month after the Supreme Court granted him bail in a case involving importation of a BMW car, the only one of eight cases against him in which he had been denied bail.