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Pakistanis Protest al-Qaida Hunt
Thursday, September 5, 2002
By Riaz Khan
Associated Press Writer

"I warn Musharraf to immediately release our religious leaders and stop operations against us," cleric Maulana Naseeb Shah told the crowd. "We are not hiding al-Qaida men. We will not tolerate any kind of attack on our houses and we know how to defend ourselves."

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- AP
Thousands of tribesmen, chanting slogans against Pakistan's president and the United States, protested Thursday in support of villagers refusing to surrender suspected al-Qaida fighters to the authorities.

The protest in the city of Bannu came a day after Pakistani army troops shelled the remote village of Jani Khel and arrested several clerics for sheltering the eight al-Qaida suspects.

The area is about 120 miles southwest of Peshawar in the rugged tribal district of the North West Frontier Province, where the authority of Pakistan's federal government has never been widely accepted.

The eight men were stopped at a military checkpoint on Sunday, but were freed in an ambush by armed tribesmen when they were being transferred to a prison.
(More: Miami.com News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

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