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Pakistani Islamists Protest U.N. Sanctions As Taliban Offices Close
WASHINGTON & PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Jan 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Islamists and police clashed violently around Pakistan Friday as religious groups defied a ban on public rallies to condemn U.N. sanctions against the Taliban Islamic militia in Afghanistan.
In line with the sanctions imposed last week, police have also sealed a branch office of the Taliban militia here, officials said Friday. The political office has been shut and its staff shifted to the Afghan consulate in Peshawar, they said.
Angry demonstrations took place throughout the country, at times flaring dangerously as police used tear gas and batons to control the emotional crowds of mostly young Islamic students, police and witnesses said.
Defying a ban on public rallies, used to quash public opposition to the military regime, the protestors denounced the United States and the United Nations and vowed to protect the Taliban.
They burned U.S. flags and effigies of President George W. Bush while shouting slogans hailing Taliban chief Mulla Mohammad Omar and Osama bin Laden as heroes of Islam.
Police in this northwestern city near the border with Afghanistan used tear gas and batons to control the crowd of up to 5,000 as they tried to lead a procession from one of the main mosques after Friday prayers.
In the southern port city of Karachi, some 3,000 people joined the rally and vowed to boycott U.S. products despite the beefed up presence of heavily armed police and paramilitary forces.
They torched copies of western fashion magazines and broke Pepsi and Coca-Cola bottles as they shouted anti-U.S. slogans, witnesses said, but were prevented from marching through the streets.
Religious leaders in Karachi last week threatened to attack U.S. missions, prompting tighter security at the embassy in Islamabad and other diplomatic offices around the country, police said.
Some 500 police were deployed outside Karachi's Binnouri Town mosque to prevent a planned procession.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) party leader and protest organizer Maulana Fazlur Rehman, an ardent supporter of the Taliban, warned that the JUI would enforce the boycott.
"We will not allow the government of Pakistan to implement the U.N. sanctions," he said amid chants of "Long live Mullah Omar," "Long live Osama" and "We are all Taliban."
The Taliban militia which rules Afghanistan was hit with more sanctions last week for failing to hand over Saudi millionaire bin Laden, wanted for allegedly masterminding two U.S. embassy bombings in Africa in 1998.
The curbs include travel and diplomatic restrictions, an arms embargo and a freeze of bin Laden's assets.
Religious groups here, many of which have close ethnic and theocratic links with the Taliban, believe the militia's claims that the mostly political and diplomatic sanctions will trigger a humanitarian crisis.
They accuse Washington and Moscow, who co-sponsored the sanctions resolution in the U.N. Security Council, of waging an economic war against Islam.
In the eastern city of Lahore near the border with India, some 200 Islamists gathered at a mosque and shouted anti-U.S. and anti-U.N. slogans, but were prevented from marching.
Police said more than 100 people were arrested, mostly in Karachi. Local JUI leaders were among around a dozen people arrested in Peshawar, provoking threats of more protests from the party.
The military government of General Pervez Musharraf has promised to rein in Islamists, who enjoy significant influence although they have never been accepted into mainstream political life here.
Pakistan is one of only three countries that recognizes the Taliban and has harshly criticized the sanctions as being one-sided and counter-productive even though it has agreed to honor and uphold sanctions imposed by the U.N. and the international community.
Today's closing of Taliban offices follows Pakistan's agreement to abide by U.N. sanctions.
The Afghan embassy, however, continues to function in Islamabad, which still has close relations with the Taliban.
Taliban ambassador Abdul Salam Zaeef, quoted by the private Afghan Islamic Press, said the militia had closed its political offices in Peshawar, Quetta and Karachi.
In Quetta, capital of southwestern Baluchistan province, Afghan counsel general Abdullah Hammad said the militia decided to close its political offices after receiving instructions from the Pakistani government.
It was also planning to reduce staff strength at the consulate.
"We do not want to create problems for the government of Pakistan which has always responded to the needs and difficulties of Afghan people," he said.
"We are not doing it under U.S. or U.N. pressure."
The militia emerged from Islamic seminaries in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 1994, and set up political offices in Pakistani cities before it seized Kabul in 1996.
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