Anti-U.S. protests hit Pakistani cities, four killed

Anti-U.S. protests hit Pakistani cities, four killed

KARACHI, Pakistan (Agencies): Four people were killed as
hardline Islamic groups opposed to Pakistan's support for
possible U.S. strikes on Afghanistan clashed with police in
Karachi Friday, but fears of nationwide mass unrest failed to
materialize.

In a boost for President Pervez Musharraf's handling of the
crisis, turnouts for demonstrations after Friday prayers in most
major cities were below expectations and passed off peacefully.

The exception was Karachi, where at least four protesters died
and three more were injured as the protests turned violent in
Afghan-dominated areas of the city.

Only one death was attributed to police firing, with three
people killed in separate incidents as the protesters tried to
enforce a complete shutdown of shops and businesses.

At least 10 police officers were injured after being pelted
with stones by small groups of demonstrators. In attacks on
symbols of western influence, a liquor store was torched and a
Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet had its windows smashed in.

Police had used tear gas and baton charges before opening fire
on some of the militants. At least 100 arrests were made.

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.

The crowd burned U.S. flags and effigies of U..S President
George W. Bush but there was no repeat of the violence seen
earlier in the day.

A coalition of Islamic parties had set Friday as the launch
date for a protest movement they claimed would take Pakistan to
the brink of civil war.

Tens of thousands of police were deployed in cities across the
country and an army spokesman said troops were also on standby.
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
fundamentalist 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 Ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmed.

There have been demonstrations every day since Musharraf
announced last week that he would support possible military
action against Afghanistan over the terror attacks on the United
States.

In New Delhi, thousands of Muslims gathered after prayers on
Friday at India's largest mosque to denounce the United States
for threatening Afghanistan and chanted support for Saudi-born
militant Osama bin Laden.

Similar rallies were held by Muslims elsewhere in the country
after weekly prayers.

Most were peaceful but in Muslim-majority Kashmir, police
fired tear gas on demonstrators after they burned the American
flag.

Tension was also high in the northern town of Bahraich, on the
border with Nepal, where five student activists were arrested on
Thursday for supporting bin Laden. Police reinforcements were
sent to the town after Friday prayers, but there were no reports
of violence.

India's over one billion people are mostly Hindu, but about
120 million of them are Muslim.

In India's Kashmir city of Srinagar, nine people -- seven of
them Muslim separatist militants, were killed in separatist-
linked violence in Indian-administered Kashmir, police said on
Friday.

In Dhaka, nearly 10,000 Bangladeshi Muslims, pouring out of
mosques after a special prayer for victims of recent attacks in
New York and Washington, held a noisy protest in the capital
against possible U.S. reprisals in Afghanistan.

The protesters carried portraits of Saudi-born militant Osama
bin Laden, burned an effigy of U.S. President George W. Bush, and
held up placards inscribed with anti-U.S. remarks.

"Down with America. We are for justice and protection of
Muslims and their faith Islam," chanted the crowds as they
marched through streets of the capital Dhaka.

It was the biggest anti-U.S. protest in Dhaka after Bush named
bin Laden, who is based in Afghanistan, as a prime suspect in the
Sept. 11 attacks.