Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Sunday Morning

Pakistan Authorities Clamp Down on Taliban Sympathizers

Aired October 07, 2001 - 07:08   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.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: Pakistan authorities are clamping down on Taliban sympathizers. They have put one of prominence, sympathizer, under house arrest. Tom Mintier joins us now from Islamabad with the latest -- Tom.

TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jeanne, this arrest came over night of someone who has been leading many of the protests. He is the head of the JUI Party, Maulana Faziur Rehman. And police have surrounded his house.

Now, it is against the law to brandish weapons or to basically do others. Here is page three of today's paper here and you see the cleric here and his bodyguard, you see him here and an automatic weapon in his hand. Now, this is against the law for civilians and that includes bodyguards of religious clerics to brandish weapons in public. And this was a picture in the paper and they also apparently found some weapons at his house. So they came at 6:00 in the morning, basically, surrounded the house with paramilitaries and police and they remain there at this hour.

Now, there was a demonstration that was supposed to be held today. It went on as scheduled but not as fiery as the riot we saw in Peshawar yesterday. During the rally, the cleric was quoted as saying -- "If the United States tried to land planes in Pakistan, they would be destroyed." So a couple of the threatening remarks that had been made in some of the more robust rallies that we have seen.

Basically, when they take to the streets and they burn the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and the American flags and things like that, not a problem. But when they make insightful remarks, such as, "if the American planes land, they'll be destroyed" things like that and brandish weapons in public, those are two things that there was a law passed here in Pakistan in the month of August that made it illegal to do. And apparently, the police have taken that action against him. From the police we did received the report but the cleric says that he has not seen any of the paperwork or the reason for the arrest or a warrant. But he is simply under house arrest here.

Now, house arrest in Pakistan sometimes can last a week. Sometimes it can last a month. Sometimes it can last six months. We'll have to wait and see what the affect is on the demonstrations and the protests against both the United States and the Musharraf government, whether this indeed slows it down any, tones down the rhetoric. The fact that they have basically put him under house arrest at his home and not allowing him to move anywhere, we'll have to wait and see if indeed it has an impact on the anti-American, anti- Pakistan government protests -- Jeanne.

MESERVE: Tom, besides this one house arrest, any other obvious signs of a clamp down?

MINTIER: Well, there have been. There have been, you know, one other arrest and there's talk about a list of 89, mostly from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and Iraq, international aid workers that are supposedly on a list to be deported. Now, many of these people, when the international aid workers came out of Afghanistan, picked up their families and left the country and went home.

But according to people we've talked to, there are a lot of them working with the NGOs in the border areas, in the tribal areas, working with refugees coming across. And they're going to -- say they're going to talk to the government about this list to try to determine if indeed it is true. And if it is, it sends the wrong signal if Pakistan is trying to round up Arabs and send them away.

MESERVE: Tom Mintier with the latest from Islamabad. Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com