Pakistanis Demonstrate Against Iraq War
By PAUL HAVEN
Associated Press Writer
January 3, 2003, 9:41 AM EST
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Thousands of demonstrators
marched in cities throughout Pakistan on Friday to
protest a potential U.S.-led war against Iraq, prompting
tight security around the U.S. Embassy and other
sensitive sites.
About 7,000 people gathered outside the Madni Masjid
mosque -- the largest mosque in the Western city of
Peshawar -- chanting "Down with America," and "Long
Live Saddam Hussein."
In the central city of Multan, some 1,500
demonstrators gathered, some burning an effigy of
President Bush and chanting slogans against
Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who has
thrown his nation's support behind the U.S. war on
terror in neighboring Afghanistan.
"We will destroy America if it attacks Iraq," said Salim Chohan, a local cleric in
Multan. Another cleric, Qari Abdul Ghafoor, accused Musharraf of being "an
agent of Jews and America."
While the rhetoric was heavy, there was no immediate word of violence, and the
numbers of protesters nationwide were not especially high, especially in a
country of 145 million people.
In the capital, Islamabad, about 400 people rallied outside the Red Mosque -- the
site of pro-Taliban protests in the past -- some carrying banners that read
"Yankees: Don't Spread Hatred in the Muslim World" and "Stop the Holocaust
Against Muslims."
Several dozen police stood nearby wielding anti-riot shields and sticks; traffic
was diverted and two fire trucks were parked at the edge of the crowd, but the
demonstrators remained mostly calm. Demonstrations, each involving about
1,000 people, were also held in the southern port city of Karachi, the eastern city
of Lahore, and the southwestern town of Quetta.
"We are nobody's slaves. We are slaves of Islam. We will fight, until America and
its stooges are expelled from Pakistan," cleric Noor Mohammed, a member of
the recently elected national assembly, told the crowd in Quetta.
The demonstrations were a result of a Dec. 21 call by hard-line Islamic leaders
who won unprecedented support in recent nationwide elections. The religious
leaders also called for shops to shutter their windows in allegiance, but it
appeared that many were staying open.
Supporters say the marches are just a taste of the anger that an attack on
Saddam Hussein's regime would cause in Pakistan, a deeply conservative
Muslim country but a crucial ally in the U.S.-led war on terror.
"The American attack on Iraq will be an attack on the Islamic world," said Fazl-ur
Rahman, a one-time candidate for prime minister and a leader of the Islamist
coalition, called the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal. "If today we cannot stop America
from attacking Iraq, then tomorrow they will attack Iran, and then it could be
Pakistan."
At the Peshawar rally, Rahman called on supporters to "become a great wall
against America if Bush carries out an attack on Iraq." He told the emotionally
charged participants of the rally. He called America "an international terrorist."
There have been a series of terrorist attacks on Westerners and Pakistani
Christians since Musharraf's decision to side with the United States in its efforts
to topple the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, and some fear the anger will intensify
if America wages war on another Muslim country.
The U.S. Embassy said it was monitoring events, but was not unduly concerned.
"We're watching events closely," said spokesman Terry White. "But it's not
accurate to say we're behind-the-barricades afraid. ... We've been security
conscious for months."
Most Western embassies in Pakistan are already operating at emergency levels,
with families evacuated after a grenade attack on a church in March that killed a
U.S. Embassy employee and her 17-year-old daughter. In June, a car bomb went
off outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, killing 12 Pakistanis. A suicide
bombing in that southern city in May killed 14 people, including 11 French
engineers.
Interior Ministry spokesman Iftikhar Ahmad said extra police were deployed
outside the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad and consulates in other cities during
Friday's marches.
Pakistan's government, which on Jan. 1 took over a seat on the U.N. Security
Council, has been reluctant to discuss it's position on Iraq. But Prime Minister
Zafarullah Khan Jamali urged his countrymen not to waste their energy defending
Saddam Hussein's regime.
"Give a glance back in history, and see whether Iraq helped Pakistan during its
times of crisis," Jamali said last week.
Even before Friday's protests got under way, tensions were heightened after a
clash last weekend between American and Pakistani forces along the
Pakistan-Afghan border. A U.S. warplane dropped a bomb along the border after
a Pakistani border guard shot and wounded an American soldier.
The U.S. military says the entire clash took place on Afghan soil, but Pakistan's
government says only that it is investigating to see if the Americans crossed over
into its territory.
fred |
