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Anti-U.S. Strike in Kashmir, 550 Detained
SRINAGAR, India, Nov 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A general strike Friday in protest against the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan shut down parts of Indian-administered Kashmir, residents said, news Agencies reported.
The stoppage closed down shops, schools and banks in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, and took much of the traffic off the roads, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Security forces patrolled the streets of Srinagar to prevent any incidents. Troops were posted around the city's main mosque to stop Muslims from demonstrating after Friday prayers.
Police said the strike was observed to a lesser extent in some other Kashmiri towns.
The strike - called by the Muslim group Jamiat-ul-Mujahedin and Dukhtaran-e-Milat, or Daughters of Faith - was being observed to coincide with a strike Friday by Muslim parties in Pakistan to demand an end to U.S. air strikes on Afghanistan.
"We are perturbed by the daily killing of civilians in Afghanistan in the ongoing air strikes," said Dukhtaran-e-Milat leader Aasiya Andrabi.
Five Muslim rebels meanwhile, were killed in two fierce encounters in Kashmir overnight, police said.
Three rebels died in a clash near Kreeri, 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Srinagar, while two more insurgents were killed near Shangus, 65 kilometers (38 miles) south of here, police said.
Two of the slain rebels belonged to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba movement, police said.
In Islamabad, police opened fire Friday on demonstrators who took over a highway and railway line. A senior police officer said three protesters were killed, according to news reports.
Meanwhile, a religious party said two of its members were killed and four policemen taken hostage after police clashed with agitators blocking a major highway as part of an anti-U.S. protest, Pakistan news online reported.
Several hundred people taking part in nationwide protests against the U.S. bombing campaign in Afghanistan took over the Indus highway in Dera Gazi Khan district of Southern Punjab province, reports said, quoted by Pakistan news online.
Ahead of the general strike Pakistani police detained more than 550 activists by religious parties to protest against the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan, officials said.
An interior ministry official told AFP that about 520 activists of various religious parties had been detained "to ward off threats of violence and disturbance to civic activities."
About 250 people were detained in Peshawar, 150 in Karachi, 70 in Lahore and 50 in Rawalpindi, the official said. According to police another 40 were held in Quetta quoted by the AFP.
The danger point is expected after Friday prayers when religious parties have called for demonstrations against the U.S. air raids in neighboring Afghanistan and Pakistan's support for the U.S. action.
The authorities put thousands of police and paramilitary forces on the streets in major cities. Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf issued a special message saying everything would be done to maintain stability.
The authorities have generally kept religious groups under control, putting some leaders under house arrest and taking action such as banning the use of mosque loudspeakers to make political speeches.
Cars and motorcycles were stopped and searched. But there was little public or private transport on the streets. All major markets and shopping centers were closed following the strike order by the religious groups.
In the western city of Quetta, shops were shut and the normally teeming streets were largely deserted. There was no public transport and only a handful of private vehicles on the roads.
Hundreds of armed police and paramilitary troops, in bulletproof vests, manned key intersections and cruised the streets in trucks and on horseback.
"People are either too afraid to come out or have decided to spend the day with their families," said a hawker selling fruit in Mazaan chouk, Quetta's main center.
The president has strongly defended his decision to join the U.S. action, reversing the country's support for the Taliban after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
The army general, who took power in an October 1999 coup, said: "Ours has been a very tolerant government. We believe in full freedom of expression and we lay value on democracy."
But he warned that if this is abused "we cannot act as silent spectators nor would the people like us to be bystanders. We shall employ all that is required to keep Pakistan peaceful, stable and secure."
Musharraf is heading for the U.N. General Assembly in New York, where he will give a keynote address Saturday. He has denied there is any threat to his position.
The Afghan Defense Council, a coalition of religious parties, called the nationwide strike to condemn the U.S.-led action against the Taliban and Pakistan's cooperation with the campaign.
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