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Demonstrations in Pakistan Leave Four Dead
KARACHI, Sept 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Police charged individuals from religious groups with batons Friday as the first violent street protests erupted in Pakistan against possible U.S. strikes against neighboring Afghanistan, police said.
Four people were killed in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi Friday, but fears of nationwide mass unrest failed to materialize. Only one death was attributed to police firing, with three people killed in separate incidents as the protestors tried to enforce a complete shutdown of shops and businesses.
The clashes in Karachi came after around 200 demonstrators pelted buses and cars in the Nazimabad area of downtown Karachi with stones. Activists also blocked roads in other parts of the city with burning tires, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
In attacks on symbols of Western influence, a liquor store was torched and a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet had its windows smashed in.
By late afternoon, more than 40,000 people had assembled for the main rally organized in the western district of Pakistan's biggest city, which is home to 10 million people.
But demonstrations in Islamabad, Lahore and Rawalpindi, and the two big cities closest to Afghanistan - Quetta and Peshawar - all appeared to be passing off without incident.
Some 10,000 turned out in Peshawar, 3,000 in Quetta and 1,500 in Islamabad, witnesses said.
Police in Quetta ordered foreigners to stay in their hotels, but there were no reports of violence by late afternoon.
In Lahore, the leader of the Pakistan's main Islamic religious party told a rally of 25,000 supporters to prepare to march on Islamabad if Musharraf stuck by his support for the United States.
"We have yet to decide about marching on Islamabad, but people should be ready because we could give such a call at any time," said Amir Qazi Hussain Ahmed chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami, or the Islamic Party.
A coalition of Pakistan's Islamic parties has called for nationwide strikes and protests to be launched after prayers on Friday, the Muslim holy day. Demonstrations were also expected in Lahore and Peshawar, but turnouts for demonstrations after Friday prayers in most major cities were below expectations and passed off peacefully.
There have been demonstrations every day since Pakistan announced last week that it would support possible military action against Afghanistan over the terror attacks on the United States.
However, until Friday they had been largely peaceful and small by Pakistan's standards, said AFP.
Islamic groups in Pakistan are pushing for a nationwide strike to oppose the government's pledge to back the U.S. in a campaign against the Afghan Taliban for sheltering Osama Bin Laden, reported BBC's online news service.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf pledged to co-operate with Washington in trying to capture bin Laden, whom it says is behind last week's attacks in New York and Washington.
Correspondents say Pakistan is critical to the U.S. campaign and the strike will be an important barometer of public opinion, said the BBC.
"The government's hasty decision doesn't enjoy support of the people," said Qazi Hussain Ahmed.
On Thursday, hundreds took to the streets of the northwestern city of Peshawar chanting anti-U.S. slogans and torching an effigy of U.S. President George W Bush.
A Peshawar protest organizer told the news agencies: "If our government gives air or ground space to America, we will declare a
jihad [struggle] against the government."
But despite a call for a general strike in the city, which lies just across the Khyber Pass from Afghanistan, it appeared to be mostly business as usual. As on most other Fridays, shops were generally closed.
Friday sermons at the main mosques showed the mixed sentiments in the city. Several fiery speeches were given in the Old City, while in the plusher University Town and Saddar Bazaar, the tone was less emotional.
In Karachi, some 15,000 police have been put on high alert, concentrating on the airport as well as foreign consulates and businesses.
Police officials said they had received assurances from Muslim leaders that there would be no violence.
A former Pakistani intelligence chief, Hameed Gul, warned that any U.S. attack on Afghanistan would destabilize the entire region.
Pakistan's main political parties, including the Pakistan People's Party and the Muslim League, have indicated that they will support Musharraf's stance.
A strike called by Islamic groups in protest against Pakistani support for Washington's war on terrorism crippled Indian-ruled Kashmir Friday, despite pleas by the main separatist groups to stand by Islamabad, reported AFP.
The one-day strike called by five Muslim groups shut down shops, banks, schools and colleges in Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar and other towns, residents said.
Light traffic was seen on the roads of Srinagar, where security was beefed up ahead of the strike.
Kashmiri youths shouting pro-Taliban slogans poured onto the streets in the congested Srinagar quarter of Maisuma, pelting stones at the few vehicles on the road.
Baton-wielding police later dispersed the youths.
On Thursday, Kashmir's main political alliance, the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), urged Kashmiris to reject the strike call.
The APHC said it supported Musharraf's decision to aid the United States following last week's devastating terror strikes on New York and Washington.
However, the groups said the strike showed Kashmiris' solidarity with Pakistanis opposed to Musharraf's stance.
The Muslim group Jaish-e-Mohammad urged Muslim clerics in Indian Kashmir to organize anti-U.S. protests in mosques after Friday prayers said AFP.
Three more outfits, Al Badar Mujahedin, Harkat-ul-Mujahedin and Jamiat-ul-Mujahedin, have also lent their voices to the strike call.
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