Associated Press

A Pakistani police officer stands guard outside a closed McDonald's restaurant in Karachi yesterday following a general strike called by different religious organizations in protest over the continued strikes in Afghanistan and the visit of U.S. State Secretary Colin Powell.

Tuesday October 16, 2001

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Thousands of businesses across Pakistan yanked down shutters and left doors locked yesterday, obeying a nationwide strike order by Islamic militant groups denouncing the government's support of American attacks on Afghanistan.

Participation in the one-day strike varied in different regions. Some shopkeepers closed in support and others because of bullying by militant Islamic parties,

which have threatened and sometimes attacked merchants who do not close during recent demonstrations.

The strike and scattered unrest, which left at least seven people hurt, came on the day Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived for talks with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf about the U.S.-led military campaign against Afghanistan's Taliban rulers.

Powell is also trying to ease tensions between Pakistan and its longtime rival, India, while the airstrikes continue. Yesterday, a senior Indian army official said

Indian forces destroyed 11 Pakistani military posts in the disputed region of Kashmir, ending 10 months of calm along the border.

Musharraf's support of the U.S.-led coalition has infuriated leaders of militant Islamic political parties, who say he has betrayed the nation. They have directed large, sometimes violent protests in recent days, though only several thousand of Pakistan's 145 million people have been involved.

Major markets and bazaars were closed in Quetta, a border city with a large Afghan refugee population and fervent pro-Taliban sentiment. The business district was shuttered in the tense southern town of Jacobabad, site of violent weekend demonstrations near Shahbaz Air Base, which U.S. personnel are using to support the bombing campaign.

However, in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city with 14 million people, many businesses were open. Authorities said six demonstrators were wounded and one deputy police superintendent hit with a rock during scattered clashes between authorities and roving mobs that ended with 102 arrests. One man was shot in a similar incident in the southern city of Hyderabad, authorities there said. In Peshawar, near the Afghan border, strike enforcers from religious schools took up position in front of open businesses near the town's central market, shouting and shaking fists until owners closed. Some shops lowered one shutter, then closed entirely when groups approached. Police anti-terrorism units staked out key intersections in armored personnel carriers.

Some stores also were shuttered in Lahore, a major eastern city where one officer was injured by thrown stones yesterday. Several thousand Islamic militants belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammad - a group the United States links to terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden - threatened holy war against Pakistan's military-led government.

"American atrocities on defenseless Afghans will be avenged," vowed Mohammed Awais, a party leader for Jaish-e-Mohammad, the Army of Mohammad.

Smaller clashes were reported in southern Pakistan, where 14 people were arrested in different areas. Shops and businesses in the capital Islamabad, the heavily guarded seat of government, ignored the strike call.

The strikes yesterday also were aimed at protesting Powell's visit, according to the Afghan Defense Council, a pro-Taliban coalition of 35 Islamic groups.

"We have asked our followers to exact pressure on the Pakistani government to force Musharraf to send American troops back to their country," said council leader Maulana Samiul Haq, who was released yesterday from a house arrest designed to stop him from leading demonstrations.

In Lahore, Awais told 4,000 demonstrators that Musharraf must "refrain from becoming an agent of America."

"These same Americans who are using him today will kick him out after installing a new government in Afghanistan," Awais said.