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.