Hundreds of members of Pakistani religious parties rallied in Islamabad Saturday against a possible US attack on Afghanistan over this week's terror strikes on the United States.
The protestors held aloft banners with the slogan "America should learn a lesson from the ex-USSR," and chanted anti-US and anti-Israel slogans.
"If America attacks Afghanistan or Osama bin Laden, we will stand in front him," one protestor said.
Another promised mass demonstrations if Pakistan helped the US mount an attack on Afghanistan, where bin Laden, the prime suspect in the terror attacks, is based.
"If Pakistan offered the United States the use of its air bases, we will raise an army," Nazeer Farooqi, an official with one of Pakistan's religious parties, said.
Witnesses said the rally was peaceful.
Speakers also condemned Tuesday's attacks on Washington and New York but pointed out that similar attacks on Muslim counties such as Iraq and the Palestinian territory had not provoked global outrage -- ISLAMABAD (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
