Pakistan: U.S. does not threaten Islam

By ANWAR FARUQI
Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Wednesday in a speech to the nation that the U.S. decision to go after suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden does not target Islam or the people of Afghanistan.

Dressed in his military uniform, Musharraf spoke in the Urdu language in a nationally televised speech.

``Nowhere have the words Islam or the Afghan nation been mentioned,'' in discussions between Pakistan and the United States about cooperating in efforts to battle terrorism, he said.

He warned that the terrorist attacks against the United States and Pakistan's decision to help the United States find and prosecute the perpetrators has put the country in its worst crisis since its last war, with neighboring India, in 1971.

``Pakistan is passing through a very serious time,'' he said. ``Our decision today will impact on our future.''

Musharraf's address was intended to explain his decision to help U.S. forces capture or kill Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

In a sign of the virulent opposition among some Pakistanis, a powerful alliance of Islamic groups warned Wednesday that cooperating against bin Laden would throw Pakistan into civil war.

There were violent protests for a second day in Karachi, in southern Pakistan, where hundreds of demonstrators burned effigies of Musharraf and President Bush. Protesters also burned American flags in Peshawar, a northern hotbed of support for bin Laden.

Part of the speech dealt with Pakistan's bitter rival, India. Musharraf accused New Delhi of trying to profit from the tensions by suggesting that Pakistan is not cooperating with the international movement against terrorism.

``They want Pakistan to be declared a terrorist state and thus damage our Kashmir cause,'' Musharraf said of the Indians. ``I want to tell them in English, 'Lay off'.''

The decision by Musharraf – who seized power in a 1999 bloodless coup – to provide U.S. forces with access to its country's air space and land has thrust his Muslim nation of 140 million people to the front of Washington's war on terrorism.

Pakistan is one of only three countries – along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – that officially recognize the Taliban government.

A delegation of Pakistan officials met with Taliban leaders in Kandahar, Afghanistan, this week to urge them to extradite bin Laden to the United States or face attacks by a U.S.-led international force.

The officials returned to Islamabad on Tuesday with no agreement, but said the Taliban were considering several conditions to turn bin Laden over to a third country.