Pro-Taliban Pakistanis seize northern town

Hundreds of armed pro-Taliban Pakistanis seized a remote northern town today and demanded that the military-led Government should stop supporting the US-led strikes on neighbouring Afghanistan, witnesses said.

The rebels, armed with rocket launchers, Kalashnikov assault rifles, hand-made guns and swords, took over most government offices in Chilas, about 210 miles northeast of Peshawar.

Pro-Taliban Pakistanis, meanwhile, continued their control of a portion of the key Karakoram Highway for the fourth consecutive day, severing northern Pakistan’s links with its mighty neighbour, China.

No immediate comment was available from the authorities.

The Pakistani Interior Ministry said troops were being sent to oust the rebels from the mountainous town and open the road.

The 750-mile Karakoram highway was built along the ancient Silk Road that linked Asia with the West and connects Pakistan with Kashgar, in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region.

It is a major trade link between Pakistan and China, though the Chinese all but sealed it after the September 11 attacks on New York.

No more details were immediately available because of the remoteness of the region, which is dominated by the ethnic Pashtun tribes.

The Taliban are also predominantly Pashtun who live on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Pakistan’s mountainous northern resorts are a major attraction for foreign tourists. Hundreds of visitors and businessmen are reported stuck in the region since militants began blocking the road Thursday.

Hard-line Muslims, specially those living along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, are outraged by the Government’s decision to help the US in its war on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, who are protecting Osama bin Laden, the key suspect of September 11 terrorist strikes in the United States.