Pakistani police kill three rioters

Pakistani policemen flee from demonstrators in Peshawar yesterday. The nationwide protests called by Islamic parties are opposing US-led airstrikes in Afghanistan. PHOTO: AFP

Pakistani opened fire on pro-Taliban protesters yesterday, killing three people. The incident is part of a nationwide crackdown on a general strike called by Islamic parties against government support for the war on Afghanistan.

Police with batons and lobbed tear gas at about 4,000 protesters blocking a train at Shadan Lund railway station, 150km from the central Punjab city of Multan, before opening fire, doctors and officials said.

Dr Khalil ur Rehman Lund at the Rural Health Center in Shadan Lund said three people died of bullet wounds and four were wounded.

"The people have dispersed but there is still tension in the area as people are very angry," Lund said.

Elsewhere Pakistan, a pivotal ally of the US in its attacks on Afghanistan, police fired tear gas and warning shots to scatter anti-government protesters.

Roads almost deserted and shops shuttered, but because the government also declared yesterday a national holiday to mark the birthday of Pakistan's national poet, Allama Iqbal, it was difficult to gauge the extent of the strike.

Police they were on alert for possible trouble after traditional Friday afternoon Muslim prayers when thousands of worshippers come out from the mosques.

About protesters who were blocking a national highway near Sibi, 100km southeast of Quetta in Baluchistan province, were detained by police. Police fired into the air and used tear gas and baton charges to disperse the crowd.

Police fired tear gas at protesters in the biggest city, Karachi, and in the northwestern city of Peshawar, gateway to the Khyber Pass and Afghanistan.

About Taliban supporters, chanting "Osama will rule" and "Taliban, Taliban" marched through the bazaars of Peshawar, shutting down shops, witnesses said.

Pakistan's Islamic parties have vowed to bring the country to a halt in a pro-Taliban show of force yesterday, despite a government crackdown against their leaders, two of whom were detained this week.

The shutdown of bazaars and transport called by the 35-party Afghanistan Defense Council is in protest against the Pakistani government's support of the US raids targeting the Taliban and their guest Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Pakistani Pervez Mu-sharraf was due to arrive in the US yesterday after a visit to Europe.

Pakistani space is the main route for US bombing raids, but most Pakistanis oppose the bombing, and Musharraf has urged a pause in the attacks during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which starts next week.

"We want Pervez Musharraf to tell Bush that he must stop the bombing, the killing of civilians," said Aslam Farooqi, secretary general of the Sunni militant Sipah-e-Sahabah group in Peshawar.

In the capital, Islamabad, almost all markets were shut.

In the neighboring city of Rawalpindi, several small groups of stone-throwing youths played cat-and-mouse with riot police. The protesters burned tyres before being chased away. The streets of the southwestern city of Quetta near the Afghan border were deserted, in contrast to the usual traffic chaos. Most vehicles on the road were pick-ups laden with armed police and militia, witnesses said.

Police set up machine gun posts on top of houses at major intersections. Shops were shuttered.

In Lahore, capital of populous Punjab province, streets were empty and almost all markets were closed.