Thousands protest Pakistani airstrike
Dead were all militants, says Musharraf
Afp, Khar
Thousands of gun-wielding Pakistani tribesmen chanting "Death to Bush" protested yesterday against a deadly air raid on an al-Qaeda-linked religious school that killed 80 people. The show of anger came ahead of rallies called by radical Islamic leaders, triggering security fears that forced Britain's Prince Charles to cancel a key part of his visit to Pakistan. More than 10,000 bearded men wearing turbans chanted "Death to Bush" and "Death to Musharraf" in the troubled Bajaur tribal region, which borders on Afghanistan. The military said Monday's pre-dawn helicopter attack, the deadliest in Pakistan's history, targeted a hardline Islamic school or madrasa that doubled as an al-Qaeda-linked camp training fighters for Afghanistan. But radical Islamic clerics told the rally at Khar, the main town in rugged Bajaur, that the dead were all young students and accused the Pakistani government and its ally the United States of murder, an AFP correspondent said. Defending the airstrike, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said yesterday that 80 people killed in a raid on a religious school near the Afghan border were all militants undergoing training. The comments were Musharraf's first since Monday's airstrike in a tribal region bordering Afghanistan. Angry local tribesmen say the dead were innocent students.
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Deputy chief minister of Pakistan's Islamist-led North West Frontier Province Siraj-ul-Haq (L) stands in front of dead bodies of madrasa students who were killed in army operation in Khar, the main town in Bajaur tribal agency. Thousands of tribesmen chanting "Death to America" have rallied yesterday against the Pakistani and US governments ahead of nationwide protests over a raid on the madrasa that killed 80 people. PHOTO: AFP |
