Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mephisto who wrote (614)	10/13/2001 5:26:13 PM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15516

Protesters turn fury on Musharraf Crisis deepens with every bomb that falls as military ruler is accused of betraying fellow Muslims " A long campaign may eventually lead to the extermination of Osama bin Laden. But it could also push Pakistan into civil war, a scenario that becomes more probable with every falling missile." Luke Harding in Rawalpindi Saturday October 13, 2001 The Guardian Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Pakistan yesterday to protest against America's nightly bombardment of fellow Muslims in Afghanistan. As each bomb falls, the anger of ordinary Pakistanis - who believe that the country's military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, has betrayed them by siding with the US - is rising. In the port city of Karachi, police fired teargas to disperse protesters who set fire to cars and buses. They also smashed the windows of an easy American target, a branch of the fast food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken. Seven people were wounded by gunfire and several others sustained minor injuries, witnesses said. No further details of their injuries were immediately available. As smoke billowed from burning tyres and ordinary residents remained inside, the demonstrators hurled stones and tried to break into government offices and banks. Crowds also gathered in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, the capital's chaotic twin city. Challenge In general, though, yesterday's protests after Friday's noon prayers were more muted than earlier in the week, when four people were shot dead near Quetta and rioters burned down a United Nations office and a cinema. Many of yesterday's demonstrators belong to the same Pashtun ethnic group as the Taliban. For them, there is now only one hero: Osama bin Laden. "America wants to capture Afghanistan and they want to finish the Islamic system in Afghanistan," one protester in Peshawar said. "This is a lame excuse of America that Osama has destroyed the World Trade Centre." In Peshawar, from where the grand trunk road immortalised by Kipling begins, 5,000 people gathered to burn effigies of President George Bush and listen to speeches in praise of Bin Laden. The police had taken no chances. Before the mosques began to empty, they encircled the centre of the city with steel and barbed wire. A large procession from the pro-Taliban tribal areas was turned back. In an address, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the leader of Pakistan's largest religious party, the Jamaat-i-Islami, issued a direct challenge to Pakistan's military leader. "Musharraf has violated his constitutional limits and has no justification to stay in power. He should resign immediately or else we will lay siege to Islamabad," he said. In normal times, Mullah Ahmed's rhetoric would be little more than an empty boast. At the ballot box, Pakistan's rightwing Islamist parties have traditionally done badly, winning barely 3% of the vote. But these are not normal times. As each day passes, the religious parties are gaining in strength and confidence. Gen Musharraf has made it clear that he will tolerate no dissent from his internal opponents. This week he completed a dramatic reshuffle within the army, sacking the pro-Taliban head of Pakistan's powerful ISI intelligence agency, Lt-Gen Mehmood Ahmed. Other rightwing officers were also weeded out and replaced by Musharraf loyalists. There are rumours that the bar at the army's headquarters in Rawalpindi has been reopened. While he may have done enough to head off a counter-coup from within the ranks, Gen Musharraf still faces the prospect of a full-blown insurrection from Pakistan's tribal belt. The maliks - tribal elders who live along the border with Afghanistan, in North West Frontier Province, and in the dusty mountains south of Kandahar - have never felt much affinity with the modern Pakistani state. They feel even less now. To prevent further violence, the army arrived two days ago to patrol the streets of Quetta, a city that resembles a war zone. Police took up positions on rooftops and army trucks were posted outside the UN buildings that have not been burned down. Armoured vehicles and truckloads of helmeted troops armed with machine guns patrolled the city. "There is no way that the government will continue to stand for this loss of life and property," Gen Musharraf's spokesman, Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi, made clear yesterday, military shorthand which carries a clear message that all rioters will be shot. In the end the protests were peaceful. Around 4,000 people gathered in the city's sports stadium to hear anti-US speakers rail against the Afghan raids - interrupting them with chants of "Long live Osama" and "Death and destruction to the USA". Had they decided to riot, it would not have been an even-handed battle: columns of riot police armed with Kalashnikovs were waiting. Many young men have already slipped into Afghanistan to fight in the new jihad against the United States. It is against this volatile and uncertain backdrop that the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, will visit to Pakistan early next week. His diplomatic mission is clear-cut: to hold America's shaky coalition against terrorism together. But he is not universally welcome. Pakistan's religious parties have already called for a general strike to greet his arrival. "The nation will not tolerate his unclean feet on our clean land," a dozen heads of religious parties said in a statement. On Monday Gen Musharraf said he was convinced that the US offensive against Afghanistan would be "short". His remarks earned a thinly concealed rebuke from George Bush, who said that Pakistan had not been informed of America's military strategy. A long campaign may eventually lead to the extermination of Osama bin Laden. But it could also push Pakistan into civil war, a scenario that becomes more probable with every falling missile. guardian.co.uk