Rallies against US missile strike continue in Pakistan
Pakistani authorities, meanwhile, arrested a relative of a man suspected of hiding the bodies of four suspected al-Qaida operatives believed killed in the January 13 attack, a security official said.
The man, who was not identified, was arrested in Damadola, the remote hamlet near the Afghan border where US missiles struck, the official said. The suspect was related to Faqir Mohammed, a pro-Taliban cleric who intelligence officials believe was responsible for hiding the bodies.
"We are investigating his links" to the extremists targeted in the airstrike, the official said, adding that authorities also were seeking Mr Mohammed and another cleric believed to have helped hide the bodies.
Pakistani officials say 13 other civilians also were killed in the attack, including women and children. The attack reportedly targeted al-Qaida's Number Two leader Ayman al-Zawahri, who was not there.
About 5,000 demonstrators assembled on a dry riverbed in a mountain market town near the site of strike, shouting "Long live Osama bin Laden!" and "Death to America!" They also burned effigies of US President George Bush.
"America is the biggest terrorist in the world," said Maulana Mohammed Sadiq, a lawmaker in the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party that helped organise the protest. "America bombed innocent people inside their homes."
The rally was the latest in a string of protests in Pakistan's biggest cities over the missile strike. The assault has sparked friction between Islamabad and Washington and widespread outrage in the Islamic nation of 150 million.
Pakistan authorities have said they are looking for militants who might have survived, but security forces have not visibly stepped up manoeuvres in border regions where anger runs high among the 3.2m residents.
The military still mans ubiquitous checkpoints in the area, but analysts say Pakistan is taking a low-profile approach so as not to enrage local people with large-scale offensives that may cause more civilian casualties.
Hundreds of al-Qaida and Taliban militants, including bin Laden and al-Zawahri, are believed to be hiding in the rugged mountains along the porous Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
On Saturday, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf told visiting US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns that the United States cannot repeat such attacks.
They were Mr Musharraf's first publicised comments on the attack.
