Pakistan Seals Off City, Rounds Up Hundreds, to Protect Airbase Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit (BBC's version, which plays down the whole thing as almost a mere disturbance, follows this report from the Independent): The Independent - 14 October 2001 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia_china/story.jsp?story=99422 City sealed after threat to air base 14 October 2001 Authorities in Pakistan arrested hundreds of militant Muslims and sealed an entire city today after leaders of an influential Islamic political party vowed to attack an air base where US personnel were said to be working. A spokesman for Pakistan's powerful Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party said thousands of followers were massing and would move toward Jacobabad Air Base. "Body bags will be sent to America," said Riaz Durrani, a Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam spokesman. "Then they will realise the misery." Interior ministry officials said 292 members of that party and other militant organisations were arrested to "prevent them from attacking and carrying out suicide operations" at the air base. Pakistani officials confirmed on Thursday that the country had allowed US military aircraft to land inside its borders and has granted the United States use of at least two air bases during air strikes inside Afghanistan. One base, they said, was Jacobabad's. The officials emphasised that the Americans were not ground forces and did not characterise them as US military personnel. Government spokesman Anwar Mehmood has said Pakistan will not allow its territory to be used for any attacks on Afghanistan. The issue is extremely controversial in the Muslim country of 145 million people. Islamic religious parties sympathetic to the Taliban are outraged that Pakistan has decided to help the United States in its attempts to destroy terrorist installations in Afghanistan that belong to Osama bin Laden, top suspect in the September 11 attacks on the United States. Intelligence sources said all major roads leading to Jacobabad had been closed, and anyone trying to reach the city is being checked thoroughly. The city is sealed to outsiders, the sources said. Dozens of militants blocked a road to Jacobabad on Sunday morning, burning tires, a city police dispatcher said. Authorities quickly restored the normal flow of traffic, the dispatcher said. Abdul Ghafoor Hydri, a Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam leader, said yesterday that the party had called for followers to attack the air base and even stage suicide attacks to destroy American aircraft. The party's Jacobabad leader, Mohammed Khan Bijarani, said today 10,000 activists were ready to help. Troops from Panu Akoil, a nearby major military base, were on the scene at the air base to ensure security, interior ministry sources said. * The BBC's version: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1598000/1598341.stm Sunday, 14 October, 2001, 08:55 GMT 09:55 UK Violence erupts near Pakistan airbase Shabaz airbase is closely guarded One demonstrator has been killed and at least 10 others injured in protests in the southern Pakistani town of Jacobabad. Several thousand members of the radical Sunni party Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) converged on the town to march on a nearby airbase which they say is being used by the United States. Police have set up roadblocks around Jacobabad to seal off the town and prevent access to the base, and are reported to have arrested several hundred JUI militants, many of them the night before the demonstration. "We have strict orders from the government to deal sternly with the protesters," Jacobabad police superintendent Akhtar Ali Shah said. The protesters gathered in the centre of the town, before moving off towards the nearby Shabaz airbase. The police called on them to disperse, then fired into the air and used teargas on the crowd. Airport The airport is ringed with barbed wire, and roads leading to it have been blocked. Pakistani officials have confirmed to the AP news agency that at least two airbases in the country are being used by the United States, one of them at Jacobabad. But they say the US personnel are not troops. They say they have given permission for the base to be used for emergency search-and-rescue operations in Afghanistan, but not for attacks on that country. Clampdown Islamic parties have led protests all week over Pakistan's co-operation with the United States in its attacks on Afghanistan and the Taleban. On Friday security forces exchanged fire with Muslim radicals in Karachi, and imposed a security clampdown across the whole of the country. The US Secretary of State Colin Powell is due to leave Washington on Sunday for Pakistan and India. As well as bolstering support for the US strategy in Afghanistan, Mr Powell is said to wish to try to reduce tensions between the two countries over Kashmir. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytas-10.14.01-07:35:00-16954