Posted on 10/31/2006 8:27:37 PM PST by blam
Tribesmen vow revenge over attack on madrassa
By Isambard Wilkinson in Peshawar and Ashraf Ali in Khar
Last Updated: 3:22am GMT 01/11/2006
Thousands of armed Pakistani tribesmen threatened bloody revenge yesterday for the attack on a religious college that left 80 dead, as Pakistani officials sought desperately to justify the assault on what it claimed was a terrorist training base.
The government's anti-terrorism campaign faced tough questions from the local population in North West Frontier Province, after Monday's dawn strike on the madrassa, or college, near the town of Khar in the country's remote tribal areas.
At Khar yesterday, some 10,000 protesters gathered to listen to Maulana Faqir Mohammada, a firebrand linked to al-Qa'eda who had reportedly left the madrassa 30 minutes before the attacks.
"We need blood," he said. "Your blood will pay tribute to the martyrdom of those who lost their lives in yesterday's incident."
Pakistan, an ally in the American-led war against terror, said it targeted the seminary as it was a "terrorist training facility" and that its chief cleric, Mullah Liaquat Hussain, was an associate of Osama bin Laden's Egyptian deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Officials in Islamabad claimed that the madrassa and its students were "frequently visited by al-Qa'eda leaders", including Zawahiri and Abu Obaidah al-Masri, the alleged al-Qa'eda operations chief who Pakistan accuses of links to terrorist plots in Britain.
But angry local tribesmen insisted yesterday that the dead were innocent students, some of them teenagers. Abu Bakar, 22, whose legs were broken by rubble after the missile strike, said: "There was not a militant training in the madrassa. We had come here to learn Allah's religion."
President Pervez Musharraf maintained that the victims were all militants. "We were watching them for the last six or seven days – we knew exactly who they are, what they are doing," he said.
Tensions were fanned by Islamist politicians who claimed that American forces were responsible for the attack. While Pakistani helicopter gunships were involved in the raid, several locals claimed to have spotted Predator drones – used by America for reconnaissance and to strike targets on the ground using Hellfire missiles.
Pakistan and the US military denied that American forces fired on the madrassa but Pakistan admitted that American intelligence had been used to conduct the operation.
Thousands more angry locals gathered in Peshawar, the provincial capital, yesterday and burnt an effigy of President George W Bush. Tariq Naeem, a leader of the radical Jamaat-e-Islami party, said: "Whenever an important American or British personality comes to Pakistan, innocent people are martyred in the name of militants.
"People were martyred on Prince Charles's arrival as a salute to him."
The city is home to the Markaz Aloom-e-Islamic madrassa, which was to be visited by Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, before their itinerary was changed in the wake of the attack.
Syedul Arifeen, the head of the madrassa, said: "I accepted the request with a view that his visit will remove the West's misunderstanding about madrassas. I wanted to show him [Charles] that no hatred or militancy is taught to students."
For later. Thanks.
I see your stick, and I meet it with a MOAB.
Blow them up too, and so on, and so on...
Get your free .50 caliber slug here, get your free slug!
Bring it on, Mother Faqir.
Bush will be hurting for votes with this bunch!
They should have blown it up just for it being a madrassa, we know what those are for.
Give Rove two weeks with them and Bush would carry the Pakistan.
This is one time where we got it right. Blow the pig fornicators to hell and gone. They need not like us...just fear will do quite well.
Now...that's the 'river rat' I know and like, lol.
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