Pakistan struggles with backlash

Police are ill-trained to deal with the rioters

		By Daniel Lak BBC News Online's correspondent on the Pakistan-Afghan border

This city erupted in violence today.

Angry mobs destroyed swathes of property in Quetta, nine banks were burned down or damaged and four others were looted.

Up to nine cinemas were attacked - two for showing American movies.

There were reports of snipers firing at police from rooftops

Cars, motorcycles and a police station were smashed and set alight.

The theme was anti-American, anti-British, pro-Taleban and pro-Osama Bin Laden.

The destruction was immense, and the victims of all this wrath against other countries and cultures were local Muslims, businessmen who lost income and property, and the scores who were injured.

One man - believed to be a 26-year-old protester - died from gunshot wounds.

Armed guards on patrol

There were reports of snipers firing at police from rooftops.

Heavily armed border guards, used to dealing with drug smugglers and tribal warlords, patrolled the streets in armoured personnel carriers.

Local journalists say the authorities underestimated the determination of Taleban supporters to wreak havoc in response to the first night of American-led air strikes on Afghanistan.

Tear gas was fired to disperse the demonstrators

They point out that provincial police forces in Pakistan are traditionally poorly trained in crowd control.

It is a mistake the authorities do not intend to repeat after the second night of air attacks.

The vociferous determination of Islamic political parties here is legendary, and they sense their hopes of spreading the Taleban movement into Pakistan slipping away.

They would have far less influence in Pashtun tribal areas of Pakistan if the Taleban crumbled and a Pashtun-dominated secular government - perhaps led by exiled former King Zahir Shah - took its place.

Critics

There is no doubt that President Musharaff would like to see the back of the religious parties.

They have been among his fiercest critics, even before he put Pakistan on the list of staunch, post-11 September supporters of the United States.

The president is at odds with many Pakistanis over his support for the US

That decision by the president turned Islamist opponents into enemies.

One demonstration on the Afghan border, north of Quetta, even had an effigy of Mr Musharaff burned and savaged by a small, frenzied crowd.

President Musharaff took a bold move in Islamabad on Monday, one that has almost been overlooked now that air strikes, and reaction to them, have begun in the region.

He rid himself of two senior generals who are seen as the most radical Islamists in his de facto military cabinet.

Ironically, both were his staunch supporters when he toppled an elected civilian government to come to power in 1999.

Civilian casualties feared

But both have been shifted to less important, largely symbolic jobs in the military hierarchy, theoretically out of the president's way.

The gamble is that the United States and its allies will not alienate the vast majority of Pakistanis who oppose terrorism and extremist religious parties.

Civilian casualties would not sit well with that silent majority.

General Musharaff has some tough, challenging days ahead.