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One Dead as Violent Anti-U.S. Protests Break Out Across Pakistan
QUETTA, Pakistan, Oct 8 (News Agencies) - One person died in violent anti-U.S. protests across Pakistan Monday, forcing the army to deploy forces onto the streets and police to fire tear gas in efforts to quell the riots.
In the largest demonstrations, between 10,000 and 15,000 students and members of hardline religious groups rioted in the western city of Quetta, burning down three cinemas, a police station, a shopping plaza, a UNICEF building and a fire station.
Chanting "Down with America" and "Death to President Bush", the crowds smashed the windshields of parked cars and threw stones at police.
As the violence intensified, police fired scores of tear gas canisters as repeated automatic weapons fire could be heard and army personnel carriers were deployed onto the streets.
Hospital officials reported that one demonstrator died and eight other people were injured, in demonstrations that erupted despite a decision late Sunday by Quetta authorities to close the city's schools, colleges and universities for three days.
The protests came after the chief clerics of several mosques in Quetta reacted to Sunday's U.S.-led military attacks on Taliban targets in Afghanistan by announcing over their public address systems that
jihad (struggle) was now "mandatory" for Pakistani Muslims.
The anti-U.S. sentiment of the protests swiftly took on a more general anti-foreigner tone, and as the demonstrators marched towards the Serena Hotel - base for several hundred foreign journalists - police had to fire more tear gas shells to keep the crowds away.
"We don't know how many protestors there are. There are just so many of them," a police spokesman told AFP.
Another rally of 10,000 people was held at the border crossing of Chaman, around 60 miles northwest of Quetta.
The participants denounced Pakistan for backing the U.S. and British strikes and burned effigies of President Pervez Musharraf before dispersing peacefully, witnesses said.
The decision to back the U.S. war on terrorism in the wake of the September 11th attacks in New York and Washington has proved a delicate balancing act for the political leadership of Muslim Pakistan.
But Musharraf Monday defended Islamabad's support for the strikes - after U.S. planes over-flew Pakistani airspace - saying it was in his country's national interests.
"No policies remain constant, only national interests remain constant," he told a press conference.
Police also fired tear gas into the northwestern city of Peshawar as they tried to disperse 1,500 slogan-shouting protestors.
The protestors, led mainly by Afghans, had gathered outside the Ahhaqina mosque in the Khyber Bazaar to denounce Washington's action and shouted, "Bush is a dog" and "Long live Osama".
The demonstrators, mostly supporters of the pro-Taliban Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) party, whose leader was placed under house arrest Sunday, pelted police with stones and pushed foreigners away from the city's mosques.
Dozens of police, who initially stayed at a distance, intervened to disperse the demonstrators by firing tear gas.
Some determined demonstrators stood their ground and began to burn tires and wood, urged on by their leaders over the mosque's loudspeakers.
In Islamabad, another 1,500 students armed with canes and shouting anti-U.S. slogans marched towards the American Center, which was cordoned off by a heavy police presence.
Similar protests were held in the southern cities of Karachi and Lahore.
Pakistan's decision to back military strikes against Afghanistan has triggered numerous protests by religious parties and students across the country in the past three weeks, but they had largely been peaceful, except for one in Karachi, which cost four lives.
Organizers of Monday's protests said they had planned another "massive" rally for Friday in Quetta.
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