Strike, protests as Bush aims to showcase U.S.-Pakistan ties

seattletimes: Pakistanis shut down their country Friday with a nationwide strike and protests over President Bush's visit here for talks with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

In a sign of the tense security situation, the president's plane, Air Force One, had its window shades down and its running lights turned off Friday night as it flew in from India, the second stop on his tour of South Asia, and landed at an air base in Rawalpindi.

Thousands marched in Peshawar, Multan and Karachi to condemn Bush and the United States - and Musharraf for allying with them.

The protests, plus Thursday's bombing in Karachi that killed an American consulate official, have overshadowed the White House's goal for the trip: to depict a friendly and broad U.S.-Pakistani relationship that reaches beyond simple joint defense in the "global war on terrorism."

Pakistani police also detained political and religious leaders including Imran Khan, best known for leading Pakistan's cricket team to a 1992 World Cup victory but also a critic of Musharraf and the U.S., ahead of a protest planned by his small opposition party, according to Khan's spokesman.

Pakistan's alliance of Islamic political parties, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, called a general strike Friday that left bazaars silent and shuttered, and streets empty in Islamabad and other cities. In Multan, in southern Punjab province, the alliance leader, Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, rallied an estimated 10,000 people and criticized Musharraf for inviting an American leader he said had abused Muslims. Read more