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CNN Live At Daybreak

America Strikes Back: Pakistanis Protest in Quetta

Aired October 12, 2001 - 07:04   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: At this time overseas there are some demonstrations under way right now after Friday prayers in the Pakistani city of Quetta. That is near the Afghan border.

CNN's Amanda Kibel is there by telephone now in the middle of one of those demonstrations -- Amanda, can you hear me?

AMANDA KIBEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (by telephone): I can just hear you, Bill.

At the moment, as you said, I am actually standing at Quetta's central stadium, the largest stadium in the city. There is a protest rally here as you can probably hear going on behind me, approximately 3,000 people. They've all gathered from different political and religious parties at the stadium here in the city.

So far the rhetoric is as usual and to be expected at demonstrations like this, the rhetoric inflamed, angry, much of it directed at the United States, calls for the destruction of America, pledges to shed American blood, pledges to shed Pakistani blood for the Taliban and cries of "Long Live Osama bin Laden!"

A number of different religious parties and political parties called their people to this gathering after prayers, Friday's prayers, of course, being the holy day in the Muslim world. For now, the angry rhetoric remains that. It's nothing more than rhetoric. The crowd is calm. They're listening intently to their leaders speak.

Interestingly, there are no police or military inside the stadium itself. Instead, private security companies and guards and commanders from the different parties, all of them armed with sticks, have been charged with controlling the crowd. Perhaps the police made the decision to stay outside of the stadium so as not to inflame the situation anymore.

Outside, though, there is a heavy police presence. Police and military presence remains very high. Extra forces have been brought in here to try and bolster the troops on the ground. The Quetta police chief is out on the streets himself. He's with his forces. He is directing the operations personally from the ground.

We spoke to him a little earlier. He said that his troops have been instructed to carry out a zero tolerance policy and they have been told to shoot if the situation demands it. So far, as I said, that has not been necessary. Things remain calm here. The leader of the JUI Party, which is a pro-Islamic vehemently anti-American party and, in fact, the biggest party here in Quetta, the leader here, he just spoke to the crowd and he called on them to be calm. He asked them not to go about destroying their city as they did earlier this week. But what he has said is they should continue to protest at peaceful rallies as long as this continues. And he has called for a national strike on Monday.

The rally will break up probably within the next hour or so and then people will begin to move away from here. Waiting outside for them will be police and military. But what remains to be seen is whether these reinforced troops can, in fact, control the demonstrations after the rally breaks up -- Bill.

HEMMER: Amanda, at the top of your report, I believe if I got the number right, 3,000 you say inside that stadium. Give us a sense, can the stadium hold more, number one. And number two, from a sense of perspective, how many people populate that city of Quetta?

KIBEL: Well, certainly in terms of the stadium, the stadium can hold probably a lot more than that. It's only sort of half filled and there are sort of about 3,000 people here at the moment. And by Pakistani standards, that's not an enormous rally. You know, we've seen rallies here in Pakistan where 20,000 people are turning out for rallies. So there is the ability to actually gather much larger rallies. So this, by Pakistan's standards, is not a huge rally at all.

HEMMER: Which perhaps may be significant in itself.

Amanda Kibel by telephone in Quetta there again. A rally of about 3,000 in a country of 140 million, something to watch throughout the day here.

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