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

To: Mephisto who wrote (633)	10/15/2001 1:23:11 AM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15516

Pak protestors vow to set air base afire From The Times of India Monday, October 15, 2001 ISLAMABAD: Authorities arrested hundreds of militant Muslims and sealed Jacobabad on Sunday after leaders of an influential Islamic political party vowed to attack the air base where US personnel are said to be working. A spokesman for Pakistan's powerful Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party said thousands of followers were massing on Sunday morning and would move toward Jacobabad Air Base. "Body bags will be sent to America," said Riaz Durrani, a Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam spokesman. "Then they will realize the misery." Police and paramilitary troops fired tear-gas shells to repel hundreds of militant Muslims marching to Jacobabad air base where US personnel are said to be working, authorities said. According to witnesses, Pakistani paramilitary troops opened fire at anti-American demonstrators in Jacobabad on Sunday, killing one and injuring several others. They said the paramilitary rangers opened gunfire when about 3,000 demonstrators tried to march toward the Jacobabad airfield which is being used by US personnel after attacking the railway station with stones in the centre of the town. At least 12 people were injured in the clash, including one policeman, the witnesses said. "We have strict orders from the government to deal sternly with the protesters," Jacobabad police senior superintendent Akhtar Ali Shah told reporters. Clashes between police and roving groups of demonstrators in the southern city of Jacobabad were continuing into the afternoon on Sunday as scattered groups of militants kept trying to reach Jacobabad Air Base. Jacobabad city police said 349 people had been arrested - most in advance to prevent the protests from materialising. Interior Ministry officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 292 members of that party and other militant organizations were arrested to "prevent them from attacking and carrying out suicide operations" at the air base. Pakistani officials confirmed on Thursday on condition of anonymity that the country has allowed US military aircraft to land inside its borders and has granted the United States use of at least two air bases during air strikes inside Afghanistan. The officials emphasized that the Americans were not ground forces and did not characterize them as US military personnel. They identified one base as Jacobabad's - news that has enraged some militant Muslims despite the Pakistani government's formal denial last week that "US armed services personnel and aircraft" were in the country. The government has said Pakistan will not allow its territory to be used for any attacks on Afghanistan. The crowd in downtown Jacobabad, which protest leaders from the powerful Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party said numbered in the thousands, had gathered outside a hotel in the central part of the city and began moving toward Jacobabad Air Base. Authorities, who had virtually sealed off the city and were patrolling the streets with heavy arms, first warned them to stop, then fired tear gas shells into the crowd and bullets into the air. Protesters responded by throwing stones and shouting. A jeep filled with paramilitary troops also was attacked, authorities said. Intelligence sources said all major roads leading to Jacobabad had been closed, and anyone trying to reach the city was being checked thoroughly. The city was sealed to outsiders. The issue of US personnel in Pakistan is extremely controversial in this Muslim country of 145 million people. Islamic religious parties sympathetic to Afghanistan's ruling Taliban are outraged that Pakistan has decided to help the United States in its attempts to destroy terrorist installations in Afghanistan that belong to Osama Bin Laden, top suspect in the September 11 attacks on the United States. Residents said otherwise on Sunday. "People have seen American aircraft landing and taking off during the past couple of days, and especially yesterday," said Rashid Bijarani, a farmer in Jacobabad, who said he himself saw them. Others in Jacobabad also spoke of seeing US-marked craft. Abdul Ghafoor Hydri, a Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam leader, said at a news conference on Saturday night that the party had called for followers to attack the air base and even stage suicide attacks to destroy American aircraft. Troops from Panu Akoil, a nearby major military base, were on the scene at the air base to ensure security, Interior Ministry sources said. timesofindia.

To: Mephisto who wrote (633)	10/15/2001 1:57:05 AM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

Pakistan blocks Alliance advance Powell flies out for delicate talks on post-Taliban government Luke Harding in Islamabad Monday October 15, 2001 The Guardian Pakistan will today seek assurances from the US secretary of state Colin Powell that America will not bomb the Taliban's frontline positions north of Kabul, which would allow the opposition Northern Alliance to make a rapid advance on the capital. Mr Powell arrives in Islamabad this evening for talks with General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military ruler. They are expected to discuss the situation inside Afghanistan, and the crucial question of how the Taliban should be dislodged from power. Gen Musharraf wants the Northern Alliance to be prevented from capturing Kabul, as it is backed by Pakistan's arch-rival India. Any alliance-led government would be hostile to Pakistan's interests, officials in Islamabad believe. Such is the degree of suspicion that Gen Musharraf has threatened to close Pakistan's airspace and cancel support for US bombing if Washington reneges on what one source described as a "tacit understanding" not to help the alliance too much. Despite dropping hundreds of tonnes of bombs and missiles on Afghanistan over the past week, the US has studiously avoided destroying the Taliban's frontline defences, 35 miles north of Kabul, where up to 10,000 Taliban and Arab fighters are encamped. The Northern Alliance has so far refused to launch a counter-offensive until Taliban positions are knocked out. Yesterday a senior opposition military commander, Gen Haji Almaz Khan, conceded that the Taliban had beefed up their forces at the frontline, near the former Soviet air base at Bagram. More troops had arrived since air strikes began. "Many left Kabul for the front line, thinking it's safer there," Gen Khan said. The Bush administration now faces an urgent military dilemma: if the Northern Alliance is prevented from taking Kabul, then how are the Taliban to be removed from power? The extremist regime has shown few signs of disintegrating and with the onset of winter only weeks away, the window of opportunity for military action is disappearing. "If the Northern Alliance is allowed to move towards Kabul then Pakistan will conclude that the US is using Pakistan and ignoring its feelings," Lt Gen Talat Masood, a close friend of General Musharraf's and a former minister, said. "There would be a strong reaction here. Whatever support Gen Musharraf has would completely erode." Last Wednesday the Pakistani leader held talks in Islamabad with the US ambassador Wendy Chamberlin and the new head of Pakistan's ISI military intelligence service, Lt Gen Ehsan ul-Haq. They discussed how the Pashtun, the ethnic group from which the Taliban are almost exclusively drawn, should play a lead role in any future post-Taliban administration. Gen Musharraf is expected to raise the tricky subject of the Northern Alliance during his meetings with the US secretary of state. Mr Powell, who visits New Delhi next, will also discuss Pakistan's rapidly deteriorating relations with India. India has threatened to attack training camps in Pakistan used by Islamist militants fighting Indian security forces in Kashmir. With the Taliban in power, the prospects of capturing Osama bin Laden remain small. But if the US sticks by its understanding with Pakistan not to help the Northern Alliance there seems little prospect of the Taliban being toppled before next year. The only way to get rid of the Taliban quickly appears to be a large-scale American ground invasion, an option that Washington has already rejected. The Northern Alliance said yesterday that its forces would not advance to Kabul without a political solution in place. Asked by CNN television if the opposition was in a position to move against Kabul, the Northern Alliance foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah said: "Moving towards Kabul will need a political as well as a military solution." Commenting on a proposal from the Taliban that opposition fighters join them in their war against the US, Mr Abdullah said that, on the contrary, Taliban forces were defecting to the opposition. "It is the people of the Taliban themselves who are defecting... not vice versa," he said. guardian.co.uk