Troops to shoot rioters in Pakistan polls: Musharraf

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has said troops will be ordered to shoot anyone trying to disrupt general elections due on February 18.

The elections are meant to complete a transition to civilian rule and allies of nuclear-armed Pakistan hope they will promote stability after months of political turmoil and rising militant violence.

The elections for the lower house National Assembly and assemblies in Pakistan's four provinces were postponed from January 8 after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto on December 27.

Nearly 50 people were killed in rioting after the opposition leader's murder, most in her home province of Sindh in the south, and many millions of dollars in damage was caused.

Speaking to businessmen in Karachi, the country's commercial capital, Musharraf said the government would not allow riots to occur again.

"Let me assure you we are going to instruct the rangers and army to shoot miscreants during elections," the official Associated Press of Pakistan quoted him as saying late on Monday.

"We will not allow this activity to happen again," he said.

Troops would be on patrol during and after the polls, he said.

Pakistan, a strong ally in the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism, has been struck by a wave of militant violence in recent months in which hundreds of people have been killed.

Nine were killed in a bomb attack in Karachi on Monday while 19, including 16 policemen, died in a suicide bomb attack in the eastern city of Lahore last week.

Troops have also been battling al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants in remote parts of the northwest along the Afghan border and trying to stop their spread into more populated areas.

The violence has compounded fears of insecurity in the run-up to elections and many Pakistanis believe the vote might again be postponed because of the violence.

A prime minister and government will emerge from the new National Assembly and they will run the country with Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup.

Analysts say the former army chief's grip on power could weaken after the election because his allies are expected to fare poorly, largely because of his own growing unpopularity.

(Reporting by Zeeshan Haider; editing by Robert Birsel and Roger Crabb)