Pak troops sent to dissuade jihad

FE Team | Published: July 15, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP): A day after Muslims staged mass protests over the deadly Red Mosque raid, Pakistan's president Saturday faced a pro-democracy rally in support of the country's suspended top judge. Thousands were expected to turn out in the eastern city of Lahore to cheer Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who has become an icon of resistance against the president and army chief, Pervez Musharraf, who seized power eight years ago.
About 6,000 police were guarding the 21-kilometre (13 mile) route from the airport, where Chaudhry was scheduled to arrive at 3.00pm local time (1000 GMT), and the city centre where he was due to address a lawyers' meeting.
Musharraf in March ousted chief justice Chaudhry in a move that, critics say, aimed to pave the way for the president to stay in power in his dual role as a uniformed head of state despite constitutional hurdles.
Chaudhry, who is challenging his suspension in the Supreme Court, has also taken his battle to cities across the country, drawing mass crowds who have showered him with flower petals and chanted anti-Musharraf slogans.
The judge's cross-country caravans and protest rallies have turned into the biggest challenge to Musharraf since he took power in 1999.
Opposition and lawyers' groups have hung welcome banners across the road from the airport to support Chaudhry ahead of a Supreme Court panel's ruling expected next week on his bid to be reinstated.
The expected rally would come a day after enraged Muslims protested against Musharraf across the country over the July 10-11 army raid on Islamabad's pro-Taliban Red Mosque that killed 75 people inside the compound.
Thousands of Islamic protesters Friday called for jihad (holy war) and burnt effigies of Musharraf and a puppet of "Uncle Sam," the icon of the United States, which has backed Musharraf as an ally in its "war on terror."
Musharraf Thursday warned he would root out extremists and beef up the military effort in border areas with Afghanistan, remote and lawless regions that have become hideouts for the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
Meanwhile: Thousands of troops were deployed to Pakistan's northwestern frontier to try to dissuade outlawed Islamic militants from launching a holy war against the government for its bloody attack on a radical mosque, military officials said Saturday. As the troop movements proceeded in at least five areas of the North West Frontier Province, a suicide bomber struck in another region of the border, his explosives-laden vehicle killing at least eight soldiers in a military convoy, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arhad said.
Local security officials said as many as 12 soldiers died and another 20 were wounded in the attack, while nearby two rockets believed to have been fired by militants landed near a military check point.
Elsewhere in the northwest, suspected militants detonated a bomb that struck a vehicle carrying soldiers in the town of Bannu, injuring two of them, said Mohammed Khan, an area police official.
The region along the Afghanistan border has seen increased activity by both local militants, the Taliban and, according to a recent US assessment, the al-Qaida terror network.
He said there were no immediate plans for combat operations against Maulana Fazlullah, a radical cleric who has pressed for the imposition of Taliban-style rule in Pakistan, much like the leaders of the Red Mosque.
Pakistan troops overran the Islamabad mosque Wednesday following an eight-day siege with a hard-line cleric and his militant supporters that left more than 100 dead.
Fazlullah, who has close links to the outlawed Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law, told supporters to prepare for jihad, or holy war, against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf for the assault, the official said.
The local Dawn newspaper quoted Interior Ministry secretary Syed Kamal Shah as saying Friday some women and children may have been among the 75 killed in the raid. Earlier the government said the only casualties were among the defending militants and attacking troops.