ISLAMABAD, Oct 12: The Afghan Defence Council’s (ADC) call for a rally against the US attacks on Afghanistan failed to muster the desired support in Islamabad on Friday compared to its demonstration held earlier.

The council had announced that it would stage a single demonstration on Friday, and all activists of its allied organizations and would gather in the federal capital to show their power.

However, two separate demonstrations were held in Rawalpindi and Islamabad on Friday.

When contacted, a leader of the council, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, admitted that they had announced holding of a demonstration in Islamabad but some of the ADC leaders did not agree with the plan and decided to hold a separate demonstration at Rawalpindi.

Holding of separate demonstrations shows that some sort of rift has developed between the leaders of the council, an ADC source told Dawn.

During the demonstration held last Friday, the ADC had asked the people to get their names registered with the council at Lal Masjid in Islamabad after Friday prayers to wage Jihad against the US. However, the general public did not give any response to the call.

But, Maulana Ghazi claimed that thousands of their activists had entered Afghanistan. “We have directed our activists to be ready to go to Afghanistan to help the Taliban”, he said.

Speaking at a demonstration staged in front of the federal ombudsman’s secretariat near Zero Point, the ADC leaders said, “President Gen Pervez Musharraf betrayed the nation and the Muslims of the world by providing support to the US in its war against Afghanistan.”

The participants of the demonstration were raising anti-US and anti-government slogans. They set two effigies of American President George W. Bush on fire.

They ordered their activists to destroy all Pakistani airbases given to the US, including Pasni and Jacobabad, and attack the US forces.

They also gave a call for a country-wide shutterdown and wheel-jam strike in support of the Taliban. They warned President Musharraf and Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider to evacuate the US forces from Pakistan.

A leader of the council claimed that the personnel of the US intelligence agencies had been deployed at all security posts set up by the army in Islamabad.

They said US intelligence agencies’ personnel were taking snaps of important and sensitive government buildings.

On this occasion, the activists of the ADC burnt two issues of a national Urdu daily for allegedly promoting the US point of view. Most of the leaders urged the armed forces to utilize nuclear capability in support of the Afghan brothers.