Leader Tries to Reassure Pakistanis

By ANWAR FARUQI
Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - In a nation reacting with anger and fear over the government's decision to help the United States take action against Afghanistan, Pakistan's president has a tough task Wednesday in selling his stance to the public.

Gen. Pervez Musharraf plans to give an address on national television Wednesday night to explain his decision to help U.S. forces capture or kill Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

In a sign of the virulent opposition among some Pakistanis, a powerful alliance of Islamic groups warned Wednesday that cooperating against bin Laden would throw Pakistan into civil war.

The "Pakistan army will be the target of public wrath and hatred if the military-led government allows American troops in the country to attack our Islamic neighbor," said Maulana Samiul Haq, leader of the Afghan Defense Council.

"The arrival of American soldiers in Pakistan could destabilize the country and plunge it into a civil war like Algeria," he said.

The group of 35 religious and militant organizations said they would obey any order by Afghanistan's Taliban rulers for a holy war against the United States if its forces attack Afghanistan, which is harboring bin Laden.

In a second day of protests in the southern city of Karachi on Wednesday, hundreds of demonstrators burned effigies of Musharraf and President Bush. Protesters also burned American flags in Peshawar, the capital of the Northwest Frontier Province and a hotbed of support for bin Laden.

Several smaller protests also have been held in other cities in Pakistan.

In his speech, Musharraf will reassure Pakistanis that his decision to help the United States is in the country's best interests and call for unity among Pakistanis against terrorism, senior government officials familiar with the contents of the address said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The decision by Musharraf _ who seized power in a 1999 bloodless coup _ to provide U.S. forces with access to its country's air space and land has thrust his Muslim nation of 140 million people to the front of Washington's war on terrorism.

Pakistan is one of only three countries _ along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates _ that officially recognize the Taliban government. Support for the Taliban and bin Laden runs high among some sectors of the public, especially near the Afghan border and among powerful armed militant groups.

A delegation of Pakistan officials met with Taliban leaders in Kandahar, Afghanistan, this week to urge them to extradite bin Laden to the United States or face attacks by a U.S.-led international force.

The officials returned to Islamabad on Tuesday with no agreement, but said the Taliban were considering several conditions to turn bin Laden over to a third country.