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Pakistan moves to crack down on unrest
Letter purportedly from bin Laden appears aimed at overthrow
11/02/2001
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistani authorities took new steps to quell unrest
Thursday, arresting a leading opposition politician and toughening prohibitions
against religious protests amid rising public discomfort with the government's
support of the U.S.-led military action in Afghanistan.
Later Thursday, a letter attributed to Osama bin Laden and released to Arab
satellite television station Al-Jazeera in Yemen condemned Pakistan's government
and called on the country's Muslims to resist what he termed a Christian
crusade. Also, Pakistani authorities began a nationwide manhunt for a key suspect in
the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks after he apparently entered the country from
Afghanistan. The suspect, Said Bahaji, 26, was believed to have returned to Pakistan for a
Tuesday flight from Karachi to Istanbul, Turkey. Officials told the Associated
Press that he did not show up for the flight but is thought to be still hiding
in Karachi. German authorities have said he had close contacts with hijackers
who crashed commercial airliners into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. Also Thursday, U.S. warplanes continued airstrikes for a 25th day, and the
Turkish government announced plans to send a contingent of 90 special-forces
troops to train opposition fighters in northern Afghanistan. In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday that 80
percent of the military effort in Afghanistan is devoted to helping the
anti-Taliban Northern Alliance break through enemy lines in the northern half of
the country. He said those efforts have been aided significantly by U.S. special-forces
troops sent in to help coordinate air raids with opposition forces. He said the United States is poised to triple or quadruple the number of
troops on the ground. Pentagon officials have refused to say how many U.S.
troops are now in Afghanistan, but estimates range from 100 to 200. Turkey's pledge to send troops followed a request by U.S. military officials.
Britain, Canada and Australia have already announced plans to send in
special-forces units. The involvement of Islamic troops from Turkey, NATO's only Muslim member
country, is a powerful symbolic step for the U.S.-led effort and a needed boost
for Pakistan's government, some analysts said. Islamic leaders in Pakistan who are sympathetic to the Taliban regime have
been highly critical of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's decision to sever
long, close relations with the Afghan regime and to support the U.S. led
anti-terrorism campaign. Taliban officials at the regime's embassy in Islamabad condemned the Turkish
government's commitment of specially trained fighters experienced in that
country's lengthy battle against Kurdish separatists. The Taliban leadership has refrained from directly criticizing the government
of Gen. Musharraf. But the statement attributed to Mr. bin Laden and excerpted
on Al-Jazeera appeared to urge the overthrow of the Pakistani government. The letter could not be independently authenticated. But an official with
al-Jazeera told the Associated Press that its signature and style were
recognized as Mr. bin Laden's. It would be the first communication from the
Saudi exile since Oct. 13. "The world has been divided into two camps: one under the banner of the
cross, as the head of infidels, Bush, has said, and one under the banner of
Islam," the statement said. "Adherents to Islam, this is your day to make Islam victorious." The Taliban regime also has tried to cast the U.S. and its allies as enemies
of Islam. Gen. Musharraf has repeatedly warned that the military campaign must end
quickly to avoid fanning unrest in the Muslim world. He and other Muslim leaders recently called on Washington to end its campaign
by the start of Ramadan, the traditional Islamic fasting month, which begins in
mid-November. But U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Thursday in
Washington that the United States could not afford to pause in its war on
terrorism. "This is an enemy that has to be taken on, and taken on aggressively, and
pressed to the end," she said. "And we're going to continue to do that." A spokesman for the opposition Northern Alliance said Thursday that his
forces can penetrate Taliban lines on the Kabul front within a few days if the
U.S. maintains the current pace of air attacks. Pakistan's largest fundamentalist party, Jamaat i Islami, recently announced
nationwide strikes for Nov. 9, when Gen. Musharraf is scheduled to be in
Washington for talks with President Bush. On Wednesday, leaders of the country's leading political party, the Pakistan
Muslim league, met and decided to participate in the planned strike. The party, unseated from power when Gen. Musharraf took control of the
government in a 1999 military coup, had previously taken no public stance on
Pakistan's support of U.S. efforts to kill or capture Mr. bin Laden, dismantle
his al-Qaeda terrorist network and punish his Taliban hosts. Mr. Bush launched the military campaign Oct. 7 after the Taliban regime
refused repeated demands to surrender Mr. bin Laden. U.S. officials consider him
the chief suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that killed more than 5,000
in the United States. Within hours after his party announced that it would join anti-government
protests, acting Pakistan Muslim League President Mukdhoom Javed Hasmi was
arrested in Islamabad in a police raid. Government spokesman Gen. Rashid Quereshi said Thursday afternoon that Mr.
Hashmi had been under investigation for months by a special anti-corruption
agency before he was arrested for "amassing assets beyond his means." The arrest, which follows earlier house detentions of leaders of two leading
Islamic groups, was viewed in many quarters as a pre-emptive maneuver. It came as the Pakistani president held meetings with regional politicians
from across Pakistan to bolster support for his pro-U.S. policies. The government announced after Wednesday's round of political meetings that
it would begin strictly enforcing earlier bans on the use of mosque loudspeakers
to broadcast calls for protests or issue overtly political messages. Rifaat Hussain, a specialist in defense and strategic studies at Quaid-i Azam
University in Islamabad, said joint protests by Pakistan's most powerful
religious and mainstream parties could have spread unrest from the tribal border
areas into Punjab, the country's most populous province, home to half of the
country's 140 million people. "Musharraf has had quite a bit of challenge in his hands in trying to control
the Pakistan-Afghan border. Mercifully, the streets of Punjab have been quiet,"
he said. "I think the government is confident that they can handle it as long as
the mainstream Punjab [population] does not become a part of this larger
anti-American protest. ...Once you have that happening, the problems acquire a
totally new level." The timing of the planned protests, during the Pakistani president's trip to
Washington, would "create a real messy situation," he said. In Afghanistan, airstrikes continued for a 25th day, concentrating on Taliban
front lines north of Kabul and near the key crossroads city of Mazar-e Sharif.
Taliban officials in Istanbul said Thursday that their forces had repelled
three separate incursions by Northern Alliance fighters in the Dar-e-Suf
district southeast of Mazar-e Sharif. But as with virtually all the claims made by the regime's embassy in
Islamabad, the Taliban officials offered no evidence to support their latest
assertions In Islamabad, a special envoy from the United Nations wrapped up talks
Thursday aimed at developing a political solution within Afghanistan for the
regional crisis. Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said discussions with a wide range of Afghans –
including residents, outside opposition leaders and women's groups – were
"extremely encouraging." He acknowledged that he had declined requests to meet with the Taliban
ambassador, prompting renewed charges from the Afghan regime that the United
Nations is acting on behalf of the United States. The envoy said the United Nations remains impartial, adding that its
officials currently see little point in reopening dialogue with the Taliban
regime. "We have talked to them for years, and I think they know that if they had
listened to us, a lot of things would not have happened," he said. "In the
future, we'll see if there is any benefit."