PAKISTAN: Pakistani tribals vow revenge over madrasa strike as thousands rally and pray in Karachi for victims of army air strike that killed 80 suspected militants

Thousands of Pakistani tribesmen protested on Friday (November 3) vowing vengeance for an army airstrike on an al-Qaeda-linked religious school that killed around 80 suspected militants four days earlier. Effigies of U.S. President George Bush and Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf were paraded through Khar, the main town in the Bajaur tribal region bordering Afghanistan, and beaten with sticks and shoes. Several thousand tribals gathered in Khar, just 10 km (six miles) from the destroyed madrasa, called Zia-ul-Koran or Light of the Koran, run by a pro-Taliban cleric at the village of Chenagai. "This 'Jihad' (holy war) will go on. It will go on till Doomsday. This has also been proclaimed by the holy Prophet, peace be upon him. It cannot be stopped by Bush. It cannot be stopped by Musharraf," Maulana Ahmed Noor, a highly respected local cleric told the crowd. "Al Jihad!" chanted the crowd. "The only remedy for America, al Jihad! (holy war)." Musharraf says all those killed in the airstrike were militants, and the military released video footage shot from a surveillance aircraft showing rows of men doing physical exercises at the madrasa just an hour before the attack. Protesters said the dead, mostly young men aged between 15 and 25, were merely students. Islamist leaders and tribesmen say the airstrike was really carried out by a U.S. Predator drone aircraft flying from across the border in Afghanistan. The allegation has been denied by both Pakistan and the United States. A CIA-operated drone aircraft carried out an attack last January in Bajaur that killed around 18 people. Some al-Qaeda operatives were believed to have been killed in that attack, but the main target, al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al Zawahri was not there. Zawahri had also visited the madrasa at Chenagai in the past, but not recently, and no senior militant figures were killed in the airstrike, Pakistani security officials said. But they believed the young men at the school were being trained as suicide bombers to carry out attacks on NATO, U.S. and Afghan forces across the border. In the central city of Lahore, some 8,000 members of Jamaat-u-Dawa, an Islamist charity that the United States says is a terrorist organisation, held prayers for the airstrike's victims. Hundreds of supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan's major Islamist party, also held protests in Lahore and Karachi. Islamist parties sympathetic to the Taliban called for a demonstration in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, and a protest in Islamabad only drew about 100 people. A mountainous region that is difficult to access, Bajaur lies across from the eastern Afghan province of Kunar, where U.S. troops are hunting al-Qaeda and Taliban militants. Along with North and South Waziristan, Bajaur is regarded as a hotbed of support for Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. About 3,000 protesters, mainly ethnic Pashtuns with links to the tribal areas, took to the streets of Karachi shouting anti-U.S and anti-Musharraf slogans. "We condemn Bajaur Tragedy", read a banner. The protesters also offered special prayers (prayer in absentia) for victims of the airstrike. Protesters said the dead, mostly young men aged between 15 and 25, were merely students. Islamist leaders and tribesmen say the airstrike was really carried out by a U.S. Predator drone aircraft flying from across the border in Afghanistan. The allegation has been denied by both Pakistan and the United States. Around 1,000 people attended a post-Friday prayer protest rally in Peshawar where leader of six party religious alliance, MMA, Maulana Fazlur Rehman threatened to continue jihad or holy war till the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. Addressing the charged crowd, Rehman warned the United States that it would have to reap what it had sowed in Afghanistan. "Allah is Greatest," chanted the crowd. "Death to America." Rehman said it would be better for Musharraf to "learn a lesson from NATO forces in Afghanistan" and realize that the issue with the tribals could only be resolved through talks and 'jirga' (tribal elders' council) and not through show of force. In the central city of Lahore, some 8,000 members of Jamaat-u-Dawa, an Islamist charity that the United States says is a terrorist, held prayers for the airstrike's victims, while Islamist parties sympathetic to the Taliban demonstrated in the streets of the historic city. A protest in capital Islamabad only drew about 100 people. A mountainous region that is difficult to access, Bajaur lies across from the eastern Afghan province of Kunar, where U.S. troops are hunting al-Qaeda and Taliban militants. Along with North and South Waziristan, Bajaur is regarded as a hotbed of support for Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

ITN Source | November 4, 2006

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