PAKISTAN: THOUSANDS OF HEAVILY ARMED TRIBAL PEOPLE ATTEND RALLY TO DEMAND WITHDRAWAL OF U.S. TROOPS FROM THE AREA

Record ID: 215476

  • Title: PAKISTAN: THOUSANDS OF HEAVILY ARMED TRIBAL PEOPLE ATTEND RALLY TO DEMAND WITHDRAWAL OF U.S. TROOPS FROM THE AREA
  • Date: 6th May 2002
  • Summary: (U1) MIRANSHAH, PAKISTAN (MAY 4,2002) (REUTERS) 1. SLV ARMED TRIBAL MEN ARRIVING FOR RALLY; MV MAN HOLDING KALASHINKOV GUN SITTING ON GATE OF SEMINAR; SLV MORE PEOPLE ARRIVING (3 SHOTS) 0.17 2. SLV TRIBAL LEADER MAKING SPEECH; MV GUN-WEILDING MEN LISTENING (2 SHOTS) 0.37 3. MV TRIBAL ELDER MAULANA DINDAAR MAKING SPEECH 0.46 4. SLV C
  • Embargoed: 21st May 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MIRANSHAH, PAKISTAN
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Reuters ID: LVA695WL1OIO9V64EVN1VFZPGS24
  • Story Text: Thousands of heavily-armed tribal people have attended
    a rally in a remote border region of Pakistan to demand the
    immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from the area.

    Around one thousand tribal people attended a rally
    on Saturday (May 4, 2002) in a remote border region to demand the
    immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops operating in the Pakistani
    side of the border with Afghanistan.

    The rally took place in Miranshah, near the Afghan border,
    where residents have reported seeing small numbers of American
    troops, and say they were involved in a raid last month on a
    local seminary set up by a former Taliban cabinet minister.

    Maulana Dindaar, a local leader of the fundamentalist
    Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam party, told the gathering of
    heavily-armed
    people the U.S. presence was a threat to Pakistan's security.

    He asked the Pakistan government to remove the foreign
    troops from the area or the local populace would use force to
    throw them out.

    However, he said they would not do it immediately.

    "Whenever we decide to oppose the government, we will do
    so openly.It will be an open operation. Why should we do it
    secretly? We will make a public announcement about it," he
    told the charged crowd who shouted "Long live Waziristan. Death to America."
    Waziristan is a tribal agency of the semi-autonomous
    tribal region of Pakistan.

    Maulana Abdul Rahman, another tribal leader, said that they would
    not allow American commandos to operate in their area.

    "We have decided that we will not allow American commandos
    or Pakistani commandos to operate in our areas. Only the
    authorities of North Wazistan, and that means the high-ranking
    officials, will be allowed to search Madrassa (religious
    schools) on condition that they are accompanied by our tribal
    elders. Without that they will not be given permission," he said.

    Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday small
    bands of al Qaeda militants could have crossed into his country
    from neighbouring Afghanistan but vowed to do his utmost to
    track them down with American help.

    Musharraf said any action would be taken by Pakistani, not
    American, forces, but said U.S. and FBI assistance was useful,
    especially in communications and electronic tracking.

    The U.S. government has praised Pakistan's help in its
    efforts to track down remnants of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda
    network and their Taliban allies who might have crossed from
    Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban there last year.

    U.S. officials said last month a small numbers of special
    operations forces were in Pakistan pursuing Taliban and al
    Qaeda remnants, but Musharraf said there were "hardly a dozen"
    U.S. communications experts in the country.

    "What we are sensitive to is action taken by anyone other
    than Pakistani troops," he said. "We want information, we want
    assistance in information by anyone, especially the United
    States, but the action will be carried out by us."
    The United States blames bin Laden and al Qaeda for the
    September 11 attacks on America that killed about 3,000
    people.

    Bin Laden has evaded capture, and Musharraf said he
    believed he was still in Afghanistan "dead or alive

  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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