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Politics : War -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas M. who wrote (7950)	11/2/2001 3:21:12 PM
From: john	Respond to of 23908

(COMTEX) B: Anthrax scare on day of anti-U.S. protests in Pakistan NADEE B: Anthrax scare on day of anti-U.S. protests in Pakistan NADEEM AFZAL KARACHI, Pakistan, Nov 02, 2001 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Workers in biohazard suits Friday sealed the newsroom of Pakistan's leading daily newspaper, posting a sign on the door warning "Anthrax Zone," after lab tests showed the bacteria's presence on a press release sent a week earlier. Officials feared the incident might be in retaliation for the war next door in Afghanistan, which Pakistan's government supports. Pakistan's science minister told CNN that the letter received at the newspaper Daily Jang was one of four suspicious letters sent to various institutions in the past week or 10 days. The minister, Atta ur-Rehman, said that in addition to the Daily Jang letter, one other had tested positive for anthrax. The Pakistani government said the National Institute of Health would conduct further tests on the Daily Jang letter to confirm the anthrax finding. Ur-Rehman did not identify the recipients of the other letters but said they included a bank and a computer company. The scare came on a day of nationwide anti-U.S. rallies by pro-Taliban Islamic militants, some calling on Pakistan's army to topple President Gen. Pervez Musharraf for his support of the American-led air campaign. Armed pro-Taliban tribesmen in the north kept up their own protests, blocking the nation's main route into China for a ninth day in condemnation of the bombing campaign in a fellow Muslim country. In Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, lab tests at the city's Agha Khan University Hospital showed traces of anthrax in a letter opened at the Urdu-language Daily Jang on Oct. 23. Employees became suspicious because of power in the letter and sent it to the hospital, one of Pakistan's leading medical centers. With medical workers and security officers looking on, the newspaper evacuated and sealed its editorial offices. Employees in other parts of the building worked at their desks and computer terminals wearing plastic gloves and surgical masks. Dozens of staffers, including the reporter who opened the letter, were put on antibiotics. Dr. Syed Mohammed Shadid, medical adviser to the daily, said no employee has shown any sign of contracting anthrax. "We are providing best possible facilities to our employees and the authorities are cooperating with us," editor Minhaj Rab said. The Pakistan government said it had directed health officials to collect the samples from Karachi. The National Institute of Health would announce the results of new tests as soon as possible, a government statement said. "Health authorities ... have suspicion regarding authenticity of this case as it is felt that sufficient expertise is not available at the local hospital," the statement said. Authorities said Health and Interior ministries already had formed a special body that had been preparing for a possible anthrax attack. Post offices were also told to be on alert, and workers at Karachi's main post office were issued masks and plastic gloves as a precaution. Officials at the Pakistan's crisis management center said they had expected that "unconventional weapons" could be used as long as the United States was at war in Afghanistan. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity. The Jang newspaper has generally been supportive of Musharraf, who has sided with the United States in its war against Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement and accused terrorist Osama bin Laden. Pakistan's top Islamic parties have staged weeks of protests against the air campaign, although all have failed to draw more than a few thousand out of Pakistan's overwhelmingly Muslim population of 140 million. Friday is the Islamic holy, and religious militants staged anti-American and anti-Musharraf demonstrations in Lahore, Karachi, Quetta and Mardan. In the largest, some 10,000 Islamic militants marched though Mardan in northwestern Pakistan - an area populated largely by the same Pashtun ethnic community as in Afghanistan. During the rally, Islamic cleric Qazi Hussain Ahmad urged Pakistan's generals to force Musharraf from power "the sooner, the better." Musharraf, himself a general, took power in a military takeover in 1999. In the north, Pakistani officials tried unsuccessfully to persuade tribesmen to end their blockade of the Karakoram Highway - the Pakistani part of the ancient Silk Road, and still a major trade link between Pakistan and China. Protests ended elsewhere on the highway after a key cleric intervened, but hundreds of tribesmen kept the last link of it closed Friday, said Tanvir Ahmed, an employee of the Pakistan Tourism Development Corp. Associated Press Writer

To: Thomas M. who wrote (7950)	11/2/2001 4:04:33 PM
From: Ben Wa	Respond to of 23908

hindustantimes.com note Musharraf's membership Lashkar, Jaish should be formally branded terrorist organisations: Ashcroft Tuesday, Sep 11 US Attorney General John Ashcroft has recommended to the State Department the formal branding of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and several other outfits, whose finances have been frozen by the Bush administration, as "terrorist organisations". The Rabita Trust of Lahore, alleged to be a front for fund raising for terrorists and of which Pakistan President Musharraf was a board member, is among the outfits recommended for branding as terrorist organisations. Designating the Jaish and Lashkar as terorist organisations is a long-standing demand of India, so far resisted by the State Department which has, instead, placed them in the category of "Other Terrorist Groups". The US froze the finances of these oufitfs in the aftermath of terror strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on black Tuesday. Ashcroft, America's Chief Law Enforcer, said in a communication to Secretary of State Colin Powell: "I hereby request that you designate as terrorist organisations certain groups that the President has identified in Executive Order. "The Executie Order finds these organizations commit, or provide material support for, terrorist acts, and thus satisfies the statutory predicate for your designation."