Search the Internet          Tips  Links: Terror in America

Pak braces for a showdown with
religious parties on Friday

K J M Varma in Islamabad

Pakistan government braced itself for a possible showdown with pro-Taleban religious parties during and after the Friday prayers with a stern warning from President Pervez Musharraf that any violence would be 'put down with iron hand.'

Officials consider Friday very crucial as it marks the first Jumma after the commencement of US strikes in Afghanistan.

After the unrest in the past few days, in which five persons have been killed during anti-US demonstrations in Quetta bordering Afghanistan, Musharraf is taking no chances. He reviewed the law and order situation in the country at a high-level inter-provincial meeting in Islamabad on Thursday. He has directed security forces to deal swiftly and firmly with the law breakers, official APP news agency said.

At the centre of Friday's security dragnet would be hundreds of mosques across the country where the faithful would gather to offer Jumma prayers.

Musharraf has asked officials not to allow the Afghan refugees to leave their camps. Any Afghan refugee found participating in the demonstration would be deported immediately, an official announcement said.

Briefing reporters, Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider said the government had allowed anti-US processions in the best spirit of accommodation. "I find no reason that people expressing their point of view should resort to attacks on banks, cinema halls and UNICEF offices and start looting and burning shops," he said.

AFP reported from Quetta that radical students marched through Quetta on Thursday as thousands of more Islamic militants arrived in the town in preparation for a massive anti-US rally on Friday.

Waving Taleban battle flags and placards bearing photos of Osama bin Laden, about 1,000 students chanted: "death to America."

PTI

The War on Terrorism: The Complete Coverage

The Terrorism Weblog: Latest Stories from Around the World

External Link:
For further coverage, please visit www.saja.org/roundupsept11.html

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report