Demonstrations held across Pakistan to protest possible U.S. ac

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- A protest billed by Islamic hard-liners as a nationwide strike against a possible U.S. war on Iraq turned into a series of relatively small marches Friday, with demonstrators burning an effigy of President Bush and calling for the ouster of Pakistan's leader.

Security was high and extra troops were posted outside the U.S. Embassy and other sensitive sites, but the demonstrations in several of Pakistan's major cities remained peaceful.

A total of about 15,000 protesters showed up across the Muslim nation of 145 million and most shopkeepers ignored calls to close for the day, in what the government called a sign Pakistanis may be tiring of restrictions imposed by religious conservatives.

"I think people are disappointed in the way the (religious coalition) Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal has behaved," Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said, referring to the group that called the protest. The party governs one of Pakistan's four provinces, where -- in the name of Islamic purity -- it has cracked down on movie houses, burned videos and ordered buses to stop operating at Islamic prayer times.

Friday's largest gathering occurred outside the Madni Masjid mosque in the western city of Peshawar, where some 7,000 people chanted "Down with America" and "Long Live Saddam Hussein."

"The American attack on Iraq will be an attack on the Islamic world," said Fazl-ur Rahman, a one-time candidate for prime minister and leader of the religious coalition.

He criticized President Pervez Musharraf and called for his ouster.

"Musharraf has caused irreparable damage to the Muslims by supporting America against the Taliban in Afghanistan," Rahman said. "Removal of Musharraf from power is necessary for Pakistan."

At a rally in the central city of Multan, another cleric, Qari Abdul Ghafoor, also called for Musharraf's ouster, branding him "an agent of Jews and America." Demonstrators there burned an effigy of Bush.

Musharraf took over in a 1999 coup. He ceded power back to a civilian government in November, but retains the right to fire the prime minister and dissolve parliament.

In the capital, Islamabad, an estimated 400 people rallied outside a mosque, waving banners that read "Yankees: Don't Spread Hatred in the Muslim World" and "Stop the Holocaust Against Muslims."

Police stood by with anti-riot shields and sticks, and traffic was diverted. Demonstrations of about 1,000 people apiece were also held in the southern port city of Karachi, the eastern city of Lahore, and the southwestern town of Quetta.

"We are nobody's slaves. We are slaves of Islam. We will fight until America and its stooges are expelled from Pakistan," Noor Mohammed, a cleric and legislator, told the crowd in Quetta.

Supporters say the marches are just a taste of the anger that an attack on Saddam Hussein's regime could unleash in Pakistan.

There have been a series of terrorist attacks on Westerners and Pakistani Christians since Musharraf sided with the United States in its efforts to topple the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Some fear the anger will intensify if America wages war on another Muslim country.

Before the demonstrations, the U.S. Embassy said it was monitoring events, but was not unduly concerned.

"We're watching events closely," said spokesman Terry White. "But it's not accurate to say we're behind-the-barricades afraid. ... We've been security conscious for months."

Most Western embassies in Pakistan are already operating at emergency levels, with families evacuated after a grenade attack on a church in March that killed a U.S. Embassy employee and her 17-year-old daughter. In June, a car bomb went off outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, killing 12 Pakistanis. A suicide bombing in that southern city in May killed 14 people, including 11 French engineers.

Even before Friday's protests, tensions were high after a weekend incident along the Pakistan-Afghan border. A U.S. warplane dropped a bomb along the border after a Pakistani border guard shot and wounded an American soldier. The U.S. military says the shooting took place on Afghan soil. Pakistan said it was investigating.