Anti-US protests erupt in Pakistan

Shabaz airbase is closely guarded

One demonstrator has been killed and at least 10 others injured in protests in the southern Pakistani town of Jacobabad.

We have strict orders from the government to deal sternly with the protesters

Akhtar Ali Shah
Jacobabad police superintendent

Several thousand members of the radical Sunni party Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) converged on the town to march on a nearby airbase which they say is being used by the United States.

Police have set up roadblocks around Jacobabad to seal off the town and prevent access to the base, and are reported to have arrested several hundred JUI militants, many of them the night before the demonstration.

"We have strict orders from the government to deal sternly with the protesters," Jacobabad police superintendent Akhtar Ali Shah said.

The protesters gathered in the centre of the town, before moving off towards the nearby Shabaz airbase.

The police called on them to disperse, then fired into the air and used teargas on the crowd.

Airport

The airport is ringed with barbed wire, and roads leading to it have been blocked. Pakistani officials have confirmed to the AP news agency that at least two airbases in the country are being used by the United States, one of them at Jacobabad.

But they say the US personnel are not troops.

They say they have given permission for the base to be used for emergency search-and-rescue operations in Afghanistan, but not for attacks on that country.

Clampdown

Islamic parties have led protests all week over Pakistan's co-operation with the United States in its attacks on Afghanistan and the Taleban.

Pakistani police used teargas on Karachi protesters

On Friday security forces exchanged fire with Muslim radicals in Karachi, and imposed a security clampdown across the whole of the country.

The US Secretary of State Colin Powell is due to leave Washington on Sunday for Pakistan and India.

As well as bolstering support for the US strategy in Afghanistan, Mr Powell is said to wish to try to reduce tensions between the two countries over Kashmir.