'Al-Zawahri tape' calls for Pakistan uprising

A tape purportedly recorded by Ayman al-Zawahri, the number two in the al-Qaida terror group, called Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf a traitor today and urged people to get rid of his government.

The audio tape was broadcast by the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera.

The speaker, who sounded like al-Zawahri, called on Pakistani soldiers to disobey General Musharraf.

A week ago it was thought that al-Zawahri was surrounded by Pakistani troops in a mountain offensive against al-Qaida on the Afghan border.

“Musharraf seeks to stab the Islamic resistance in Afghanistan in the back,” said the voice on the tape.

“Every Muslim in Pakistan should work hard to get rid of this agent government, which will continue to submit to America until it destroys Pakistan,” the speaker said.

The tape comes as Pakistani troops are in the second week of a campaign along the Afghan border in South Waziristan, a long time hiding place and stronghold of Islamic militants from al-Qaida, Afghanistan’s Taliban and their Pakistani supporters.

After Musharraf spoke hopefully of capturing a “high value target,” there was speculation that al-Zawahri himself might be in the rugged border area where local tribes have more power than the Pakistani federal government.

The speaker appeared to be referring to the conflict in South Waziristan when he said: “I call on the Pakistani army: you, poor army, what a miserable state Musharraf has put you in … Musharraf ruins your natural fences – those tribes on the border – by engaging you in a fight with them. Then he removes your nuclear weapons. Will you stay silent until Pakistan is divided again?”

The voice said that such military operations on the borders were against Islamic law as they pitted Muslims against each other at America’s bidding.

“Every soldier who finds this act to be legitimate is an infidel, according to Islamic law,” the speaker said.

He urged Islamic clerics to tell the Pakistani people “the truth about Musharraf, the traitor and killer of Muslims.”

“They should incite the nation to expel the crusaders from Pakistan,” the voice said, using the word ”crusader” for Americans as Islamic militants often do.

Al-Zawahri, a 52-year-old Egyptian doctor, is regarded as Osama bin Laden’s chief ideologist.