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Demonstrations rock Pakistan

September 24, 2001

In Pakistan, demonstrations against President Pervez Musharraf’s support for the United States are turning violent. At least one person has died.

https://p.dw.com/p/16A2
An anti-US demonstration in Peshawar, PakistanImage: AP

Shouting "God is Great", setting fire to shops and stoning cars, thousands of protesters across Pakistan raged at their president's decision to stand with the United States in the hunt for Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden. Radical Islamic clerics had called for a nationwide strike to oppose any action by the US against Afghanistan without evidence against bin Laden.

One person was shot dead and three others injured in the port city of Karachi. A police spokesman told Reuters it was not clear how the civilian was shot, because many shots were fired in a run-down low-income area of the sprawling city.

Tensions have been running high in Pakistan since Washington made bin Laden responsible for the attacks against the United States. Anti-American sentiments have been strong anyway, as the country has suffered under US sanctions imposed following nuclear missile tests in 1998.

A senior western diplomat announced on Friday that the sanctions imposed on India and Pakistan for their 1998 nuclear tests will be lifted.