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Pakistani Islamic Parties Vow Nationwide Protests if U.S. Attacks Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD, Sept 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A coalition of Pakistan's Islamic parties Monday vowed to launch a nationwide campaign of strikes and protests over Pakistan's support for impending U.S. military action against Afghanistan, news agencies reported.
More than 30 parties, which make up the newly formed Council for Defense of Afghanistan and Pakistan, agreed in a meeting in Lahore that they would "consider any U.S. attack on Afghanistan as an attack on Pakistan," Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
They warned that Pakistani cooperation with any attack could trigger civil war in the country.
The Council called for strikes and protests across Pakistan in a bid to force the government of President Pervez Musharraf to reverse its decision to cooperate with any retaliatory action the U.S. decides to take against neighboring Afghanistan.
"If Afghanistan declares jihad [holy struggle] against America, we will stand by them," the Islamic parties said in a statement, AFP reported.
"Pakistan will have to suffer devastating consequences for a long, long time," they added.
But Pakistan's mainstream political parties have backed Musharraf's handling of the crisis and accepted that the country cannot afford to stand in the way of the U.S.
"The consensus was that Pakistan simply cannot afford to have America as an enemy," one of the participants at a meeting, which concluded early Monday, told AFP.
But the leaders also warned the military leader that a decision to allow Pakistani airbases or territory to be used as a launching pad for an attack on the country's neighbor and long-time ally, would trigger a severe backlash with profound implications for national stability.
A government spokesman said that a large majority of the 28 participants at the talks had supported the government decision, but admitted there had been strong opposition from leaders of some religious political parties.
Fazlur Rehman, the leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Islamic Scholars' Group), one of the biggest Islamic parties in Pakistan, and the Taliban's primary backer in the country, told the meeting in Lahore that supporting a U.S. attack would leave Pakistan facing rival India to the east and a hostile Afghanistan to the west.
"It can destabilize Pakistan. We cannot afford to have two hostile states on our eastern and western borders," he said.
Editorials in Monday's newspapers echoed the fear of instability.
"The threat from the Taliban to take vengeance from Pakistan, combined with the threat of religious parties within Pakistan, should not be under estimated,"
The Nation warned.
According to officials who attended the overnight talks, Musharraf told political leaders that the United States had asked Pakistan to allow for the use of its airspace and provide logistics and intelligence support in any military operation against suspect Osama bin Laden and his associates in Afghanistan.
Musharraf had argued strongly that Pakistan, which is grappling with enormous economic difficulties, had no option but to support the United States.
Musharraf's meeting with political leaders was part of a concerted campaign to rally domestic support for his stance on the crisis.
A joint meeting of the cabinet and National Security Council agreed on Saturday to extend its "full support" to the United States.
A massive U.S. attack on Afghanistan appears imminent now, and highly relies on Pakistan for success.
Though still unclear, options range from air and missile strikes, for which only Pakistan's airspace would be required, to a full-scale invasion, which could become very complicated without landing rights in Pakistan.
A "snatch" operation aimed at capturing bin Laden would also rely heavily on Pakistani intelligence cooperation.
Musharraf has ruled out the involvement of Pakistani forces outside of the country.
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