Transcript

COMPERE: Well our correspondent Geoff Thompson has just returned from an anti-American rally in the Pakistani city of Peshawar - which is just close to the Afghani border. Pro Taliban supporters battled police who responded by firing tear gas canisters into the crowd.

Well I'm joined on the line by Geoff Thompson. Geoff it sounds as though this rally was more than just a token demonstration.

GEOFF THOMPSON: That's right Hamish. It, it got quite heated. There were a lot of people all through a section and around the mosque in Peshawar. A lot of people on the rooves, and the police got themselves into a bit of a bind about... I'm actually not sure it's over yet. I've just, I've just come from there. The protestors were throwing rocks, the, the police were firing with tear gas. There was actually... there were some injuries. There was a human finger - a severed human finger - on the ground, and a lot of, you know, and some... a journalist was hit in the head with a rock - I think a stills photographer. So... and it's not entirely under control yet.

The pro Jihady people there were shouting out - through the tear gas shouting out - we are the creators of God and not of the United States, and we will... and the audio you will hear just now from that scene, they said we will fight to the last drop of blood.

EXCERPT FROM PROTEST: [inaudible]

COMPERE: Well that was the sound of demonstrators in Peshawar just a short while ago. Geoff Thompson, does this give an indication of the strength of feeling among a fairly broad section of Pakistan's population about the attacks by Britain and the United States?

GEOFF THOMPSON: Well I think it... there certainly that there is a feeling among protestors that there is, there is a deep, very strong depth of feeling among protestors. But, you know, in the wider population the feeling is there, but whether that will actually resort to people taking to the streets on a mass scale, is another question.

As Tom was saying earlier, and as we've witnessed today - and if you just bring up that sound now, you'll hear tear gas being fired.

EXCERPT FROM PROTEST:

GEOFF THOMPSON: I mean it's clear, it's clear that, you know, the police and now the army, we just saw some truck loads of troops heading out, heading out onto the streets, that we haven't seen them deployed yet, but at least six truck loads full of soldiers armed. You know, this is not right across the city of Peshawar by any means, but, you know, the police for quite some time were boxed in into an area in a very uncomfortable situation, at the extent to which it will translate into widespread uprising really remains to be seen at the moment. We'll have to... would have to say that the military can keep it under control.

COMPERE: Well Tom O'Byrne was also saying that General Musharraf was quite confident that social stability could be preserved in Pakistan, and as you suggest this, these demonstrations are only representative of a very small section of the Pakistan population. But presumably there is a danger that it could spread conceivably.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Well that's right. I think what the key to that, the key to that is when Afghan civilians... if there is evidence of Afghan civilians dying and it drags on for a long time, then... and people that are in, involved of their relatives as well are being caught up in that, then, you know, we will see, we could well see - and a lot of people are saying - that it could spread to the wider population.

COMPERE: And it's significant I think that in a city like Peshawar there are many people who are of the same ethnic origin as their counterparts across the border.

GEOFF THOMPSON: That's absolutely true. In this area in particular, to the very large Afghan population, a lot of Pushtan people, they say that we are the one people, we are, we are... there is no distinction between Pushtan Pakistanis and Afghan Pushtan's. So this... that is certainly true. There is a centuries of shared history, of shared religion, of shared, you know, blood ties as well, and that is why it is very, very passionate issue in this part of Pakistan.

COMPERE: Geoff Thompson in Peshawar many thanks.