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Get ready for suicide attacks: tribal cleric

* 15,000 attend demonstration in Khar, vow to ‘avenge’ attack

By Masood Khan

KHAR: Thousands of tribal protestors here on Tuesday welcomed a call for suicide attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan, as anger against a madrassa airstrike on Monday swept through Bajaur Agency and North West Frontier Province, eyewitnesses said.

Around 15,000 people at a protest demonstration in the Khar area of Bajaur Agency also vowed to “avenge” the killing of “innocent people”.

“Are you ready to join suicide missions?” local cleric Maulana Inayatur Rehman asked the protestors, who said “yes”.

The cleric vowed to uphold the “supremacy of Islam”. “We will carry out even suicide attacks for jihad.”

Rehman said he had prepared a “squad of suicide bombers” to target Pakistani security forces in the same way that militants were attacking Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq, AP reported.

Wanted pro-Taliban militant commander Maulana Faqir Muhammad said President Musharraf was an “American agent, killing innocent people at the US behest”.

He dismissed government claims that foreign and local militants were present in the madrassa at the time of the airstrike. He said that he was ready to work with a tribal jirga for peace, but vowed not to renounce jihad. He announced that “American agents will be hanged publicly”.

“Elimination of Musharraf is a must to restore peace,” he told protestors carrying guns and chanting “death to Musharraf, death to Bush”.

Security forces stopped the protestors from marching on the Khar Bazaar, which remained shut.



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