ISLAMABAD, 16 January 2006 — Tension persisted in Tribal Agency of Bajour since US Predator struck at a village Dhamdola on Friday killing 18 people.

Major political parties announced countrywide protest over the incident. Political parties including Pakistan People’s Party, Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam, Jamaat-e-Islami, Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariah and other religious groups had made prior announcements.

Leader of the Mutteheda Qaumi Movement Altaf Hussain Saturday expressed solidarity with the Mutteheda Majlis-e-Amal and expressed his party’s solidarity with those who announced countrywide protest rallies and marches yesterday.

The protest began from Bajour early yesterday when an angry mob set an American non-governmental organization’s office on fire. Police reacted and the protests began in the headquarter of Bajour Agency Khar and other townships including Dhamdola and Nawakili.

Protesters took to the streets yesterday to condemn the US air strike that officials said targeted Al-Qaeda’s deputy leader but instead killed 18 villagers near the Afghan border.

Demonstrators chanting “Death to America” rallied in Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Multan and Peshawar to vent their anger against Washington and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a close US ally in the global “war on terror”.

Pakistani officials said Saturday that Al-Qaeda’s No. 2, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, was likely not killed in the strike blamed by officials and in reports on a Predator drone of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Islamabad has launched an official protest with the United States over the attack, but this did not stop thousands from venting their anger yesterday.

Musharraf meanwhile, warned his countrymen not to harbor militants, saying it would only increase violence within Pakistan’s borders.

“If we kept sheltering foreign terrorists here ... our future will not be good,” Musharraf said in speech broadcast yesterday by state-run Pakistan Television. “Remember what I say.”

In Islamabad, about 200 activists rallied outside the downtown Civic Center and chanted anti-US slogans, while hundreds of riot police kept guard and extra police were deployed to maintain security in key public places.

In Karachi, the country’s largest city, around 10,000 protesters took to the streets, chanting “Do not kill innocent civilians in tribal areas” and “Anyone who is a friend of America is a traitor.”

The MMA and other Islamic groups have long opposed Musharraf for forging closer ties with the Bush administration after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on US.

In Lahore, some 200 protesters gathered in front of the Press Club, which also faces the US Consulate.

They shouted: “Down with America, Down with President Musharraf” and “US forces quit Afghanistan”. Others held banners which condemned the “brutal and blind act of terrorism” and said “Bajour is bleeding”.

About 300 activists also rallied in the central city of Multan. “We are protesting today against US intervention and military operation in Pakistan and demand the immediate withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan and Pakistan,” local MMA chief Hidayatullah Pasroori told the rally.