Anti-U.S. Protests Sweep Asia

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

November 2, 2001 / 12:23 PM EST / CBS

Anti-U.S. rallies attracted thousands of protesters Friday across Asia with participants demanding an end to the U.S. bombing in Afghanistan.

The strongest voices are being heard in Pakistan, where Islamic clerics have rallied a crowd of 10,000 against their government's support of the U.S. action.

Urging the army to overthrow President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, thousands of Islamic militants marched in this northwestern city Friday to protest their government's support for the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan.

"Musharraf is a risk for Pakistan," Islamic cleric Qazi Hussain Ahmad told the crowd, many of them ethnic Pashtuns, the largest ethnic group in neighboring Afghanistan.

Qazi said Musharraf, an army general who seized power in 1999, should be deposed. "The sooner, the better," the cleric said.

The protest in Mardan was the largest of several throughout Pakistan on Friday, the Muslim holy day and the usual time for pro-Taliban demonstrations against the United States. Smaller rallies were also held in the cities of Lahore, Karachi and Quetta.

The overwhelming majority of Pakistan's 145 million people are Muslim, and the anti-U.S. rallies have attracted relatively modest numbers considering the national population.

Compared to 40,000 who marched last Friday, a mere 300 noisy men took to the streets in Karachi, waving banners reading: "For one Osama we will shed the blood of millions of Americans" and "Musharraf is a killer of Islam and Muslims."

In Quetta, a border city where passions run high, 25,000 people demonstrated after Friday prayers four weeks ago. This Friday only 2,000-3,000 Taliban supporters braved the sand storms and desert sun in the cricket stadium to call for a jihad (holy war) against the United States and Musharraf.

Police and paramilitary troops stood guard by the hundreds at the rallies, keeping the protests in check.

In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, around 3,000 people protesting the U.S. attacks marched through the country's second largest city, Surabya, after midday prayers, chanting "God is Great."

That demonstration came a day after Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri called on Washington to halt the military campaign during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which starts in mid-November.

In Bangladesh, nearly 2,000 Muslim men and children in flowing white robes and prayer caps held a protest rally outside Baitul Mokarram, the main mosque in downtown Dhaka.

Another group of about 600 protesters marched toward the U.S. Embassy, but were stopped by police outside Dhaka's diplomatic enclave. They dispersed peacefully. The embassy was closed Friday - the week's holy day in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.

Chanting anti-American slogans and holding placards in support of the Afghan people and the ruling Taliban militia, the protesters demanded an immediate stop to the bombing, saying it is "killing innocent civilians."

Some burned paper and straeffigies of President Bush.

Although the government supports the international coalition against terrorism, many Bangladeshis sympathize with the Afghan people. There have been street protests almost every week since the U.S.-led air raids began last month.