Some 2,000 Afghans chanting "Death to America" staged a pro-Taliban protest Thursday next to the Khyber Pass border crossing with Pakistan, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported.
Quoting new arrivals in the Pakistani border city of Peshawar, AIP said the protestors had been trucked in to the Torkham crossing by a large convoy of vehicles from several districts in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar.
The protestors converged on the Afghan side, chanting "Death to America," and "Death to Zahir Shah" -- the former Afghan king who has become a major player in talks on setting up a post-Taliban administration in Afghanistan.
According to AIP, the demonstrators said they would never accept a government imposed from outside and vowed to wage jihad (holy war) against any "aggressor".
"Osama bin Laden is our guest and we cannot extradite him," they shouted.
The Pakistan-based news agency said it was the third pro-Taliban rally to be held at the border in the past few days.
Afghanistan's Taliban regime is facing the threat of US military reprisals for its refusal to hand over bin Laden -- the Saudi-born dissident fingered by the United States as the mastermind behind last month's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington -- ISLAMABAD (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
