About 3,000 demonstrators marched through the streets of the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta Sunday demanding a Loya Jirga, or traditional council of elders, be convened to establish peace in Afghanistan.
About 50 police in riot gear watched as supporters of Afghanistan's ousted King Mohammad Zahir Shah chanted "We are against the Taliban", "Afghans are not terrorists" and "All Afghans demand a Loya Jirga".
A Loya Jirga, according to Afghan tradition, is a special meeting of all Afghan religious, tribal and ethnic factions called in times of turmoil to unite the country's fractious clans and ethnic groups.
"This is very good," said 18-year-old Khalid Gada. "We don't want to see war, they must solve this problem by talking."
Zahir Shah was ousted by a coup in 1973 amid communist infiltration in Afghanistan that resulted in an invasion by the Soviet Union in 1979 and its subsequent 10-year occupation.
But in the past month the former monarch has been the focus of efforts to create a broad-based government to replace the Taliban regime.
The Taliban has been targeted by the United States for reprisals over the September 11 destruction in New York and Washington, blamed on their "guest" Osama bin Laden.
Quetta is a potential social flashpoint following Pakistan's offer of full cooperation with the US-led war against terrorism.
Last week 10,000 Islamic militants, organized by the Jamiat-Ulema-Islam (JUI) fundamentalist party, demanded Muslims carry out a jihad, or holy war, against the United States if Washington attacks Afghanistan.
JUI head Fazlur Rahman was placed under house arrest in northwestern Pakistan earlier Sunday to stop him leading similar pro-Taliban demonstrations -- QUETTA, Pakistan (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
