Leader tries to reassure Pakistanis

By ANWAR FARUQI
Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – In a nation reacting with anger and fear over the government's decision to help the United States take action against Afghanistan, Pakistan's president has a tough task Wednesday: reassuring the public that he is acting in its best interest.

Gen. Pervez Musharraf plans to explain his stance in a speech on national television Wednesday night. He will try to convince the nation that it is in its interest to help U.S. forces capture or kill Osama bin Laden, senior government officials familiar with the contents of the address said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Bin Laden is the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Musharraf's decision 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.

Militant groups in Pakistan have reacted with outrage.

In a second day of protests in the southern city of Karachi on Wednesday, hundreds of demonstrators burned effigies of Musharraf and President Bush. Protesters also burned American flags in Peshawar, the capital of the Northwest Frontier Province and a hotbed of support for bin Laden.

Several smaller protests also have been held in other cities in Pakistan.

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.

Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless military coup in 1999, was to tell the nation in his speech that Pakistan must unite in the fight against terrorism, the official sources said.

Pakistan is one of only three countries that officially recognizes the Taliban government. The others are Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.