Pakistan Cops Repel Militants Nr. Base By MUNIR AHMAD : Associated Press Writer Oct 14, 2001 : 8:44 am ET

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Police and paramilitary troops fired tear gas Sunday to repel hundreds of angry Muslim militants marching toward a Pakistani air base where U.S. personnel are reportedly working, authorities said.

Thousands of other demonstrators converged on roads outside Jacobabad, but heavily armed riot police prevented them from reaching the southern city and nearby Jacobabad Air Base.

Roving mobs of militants fought pitched battles with police Sunday afternoon in Jacobabad and two villages outside the city. Jacobabad city police said 349 people had been arrested -- most of them in advance in an attempt to prevent the protests.

Jacobabad, a city of about 200,000, was sealed off to outsiders. Major roads into the city were closed, and anyone trying to enter was checked thoroughly.

In a separate demonstration several miles outside Jacobabad, one protester was killed and 10 were injured, authorities and protest leaders said.

And in the village of Shikar Pur, about 20 miles north of Jacobabad, police opened fire on a surging crowd of demonstrators, authorities said. Fourteen people, including a police officer, were wounded, said Raza Khan, a doctor at Shikar Pur Hospital.

Pakistan's military government, mindful of political sensitivities, has officially denied that U.S. soldiers and aircraft are inside the country. The government insists it will not allow Pakistani territory to be used for attacks on Afghanistan.

But on Thursday, Pakistani officials confirmed on condition of anonymity that the country has allowed U.S. military aircraft to land. They said President Gen. Pervez Musharraf also granted the United States use of at least two air bases during airstrikes inside Afghanistan.

The officials emphasized that the Americans were not ground forces and did not characterize them as U.S. military personnel. They identified one of the two air bases as Jacobabad -- news that has enraged militant Muslims.

The crowd in downtown Jacobabad, which protest leaders from the influential Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party said numbered in the thousands, had gathered outside a hotel in the central part of the city and begun moving toward the air base.

Heavily armed police, who had been patrolling Jacobabad's streets for days, first warned them to stop, then fired tear gas shells into the crowd and bullets into the air.

Protesters responded by throwing stones and shouting slogans, then disbanded into smaller groups that roved the city. A jeep filled with paramilitary troops also was attacked, authorities said.

About 15 miles south of town, nearly 2,500 demonstrators waited at roadblocks. Many of them arrived in buses from all over Pakistan. Police kept them from proceeding farther.

Islamic religious parties sympathetic to Afghanistan's ruling Taliban consider it a betrayal that their government is helping U.S.-led attempts to destroy terrorist installations in Afghanistan that belong to Osama bin Laden, top suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

Abdul Ghafoor Hydri, a Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam leader, said at a news conference Saturday night that the party had called for followers to attack the air base and even stage suicide attacks to destroy American aircraft.

"Body bags will be sent to America," said Riaz Durrani, a Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam spokesman. "Then they will realize the misery."

Despite the government's official denial of an American presence, residents of Jacobabad said they have spotted U.S.-marked aircraft.

"People have seen American aircraft landing and taking off during the past couple of days, and especially yesterday," Rashid Bijarani, a farmer in Jacobabad, said Sunday.

-- Anonymous, October 14, 2001