Author:
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: October 13, 2001
On a podium in a disused cricket
ground, a nine-year-old boy addressed a rally of about 20,000 men on the
wrongs committed by the United States in neighbouring Afghanistan.
"We must unite," Kudratrullah Hafiz
yelled through a microphone after a recital from the Quran. "America has
interfered with Afghanistan, we must unite with Osama, Omar, and the Taliban."
"The United States looks at our
madrassas with evil eyes, so we must gouge out their eyes - with our fingers,"
he urged the crowd of hardline Islamic activists. "Bush, listen. If you
kill Osama then every Muslim child will become an Osama for America," he
warned the US president.
Hafiz was one of a handful of children
among a dozen men to speak at the largest rally seen in Pakistan since
Washington began its reprisals last Sunday for the September 11 attacks.
The Taliban black and white battle
flags and placards of Osama bin Laden were everywhere. Protestors swore
allegiance to him, his Taliban protectors and the militia's leader Mullah
Mohammad Omar.
"Osama is Great", "America will
Crash", "Afghanistan is Britain's graveyard", "Al-Qaeda is Good, Taliban
is good, Washington is our target, Americans must die," were the chilling
war cries.
Crowds began streaming into the
ground shortly after Friday prayers. Police, paramilitary and army troops
were deployed to ensure no repeat of the violence that wrecked Quetta.
The protest was organised by the
Defence Council for Afghanistan and the Jamiat-Ulema-Islam (JUI). The JUI
has become a rallying point for radical Muslims who remain a minority in
Quetta.
The rally defied predictions and
ended peacefully, but with a resolution warning Pakistani President Pervez
Musharraf to free all detained JUI members by October 14.
JUI claims about 500 militants have
been arrested since Monday's violence. The detained include JUI leader
Maulana Fazalur Rahman.
"These people are innocent. They
have every right to protest and they are not miscreants. They just want
to save our country," said JUI acting president Maulvi Abdul Ghani.
If Musharraf failed to meet the
demand, the JUI would not be able to restrain its activists, Ghani warned.
"Musharraf is selling the blood
of martyrs for a few dollars," he said. "He should be careful. If these
martyrs rise and realise he has sold their blood, there will be a great
humiliation for him in heaven or hell."
Violence broke out in Karachi today
as agitators protesting the US strikes in Afghanistan clashed with police,
pelted stones and torched United States-based fast-food outlet, Kentucky
Fried Chicken.
AFP