TIMERGARA, Oct 23: Tehrik-i-Nefaz-i-Shariah Muhammadi (TNSM) has announced that its workers will stage armed demonstrations in all tehsils of the district on Wednesday to protest against the continuing US air strikes on Afghanistan.
Party office-bearers made announcements through loudspeakers in the Dir district on Tuesday, urging the party workers to bring their weapons to participate in the anti-American demonstrations.
TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Mohammad warned that if anybody tried to prevent the party from holding the demonstrations, its workers would wage jihad against them.
The announcements have landed new district governments of upper and lower Dir, headed by Jamaat-i-Islami-backed Nazims, in a predicament.
Sensing the gravity of the situation, the JI sent a delegation to Maulana Sufi Mohammad to persuade him not to instigate the people to take up arms. However, the TNSM chief was said to have declined to accept the request.
Party workers on Tuesday displayed heavy weapons mounted on vehicles in different bazaars in Maidan, the ancestral village of Maulana Sufi Mohammad. They held protest demonstrations in various parts of the Dir (lower) district.
JI leaders reportedly advised district Nazim Dr Mohammad Yaqub to give a free hand to the TNSM, fearing that TSNM would unleash a negative propaganda against the JI in the district.
Meanwhile, the JI held a demonstration in Timergara to condemn the US-led attacks on Afghanistan.
Speakers, including JI leaders Sirajul Haq, Maulana Assadullah, JUI district chief Qazi Fazlullah, Maulana Inamullah and Sahibzada Faseehullah, demanded that President Gen Pervez Musharraf tender his resignation.
Volunteers register: The Jamiat Ulema Islam, North Waziristan Agency chapter, said on Tuesday that thousands of volunteers from the tribal areas have registered themselves to fight with the Taliban against the US ground forces, Our Miranshah correspondent adds.
At a meeting here, JUI leaders said that the party had set up Jihad camps along the border in the tribal areas to enlist more volunteers for the war.
The meeting was attended by former MNA Maulana Mohammad Deendar, former senator Maulana Syed Amir Khan, Maulvi Abdul Halim and other leaders.
They said that the Taliban and their supporters would not let the American forces occupy the Afghan soil.
They criticized the Pakistan government for extending support to the US and its allies for attacks on Afghanistan.
They also termed the cases against Maulana Fazlur Rehman and other leaders part of the American conspiracy to dislodge the Taliban and install a puppet government in Kabul.
Meanwhile, thousands of volunteers from the southern districts of NWFP have left for Afghanistan to fight against America.
The volunteers hailing from Karak, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Dera Ismail Khan and North and South Waziristan agencies pledged that they would frustrate the designs of American commandos to capture Osama bin Laden or Mulla Mohammad Omar, or oust the Taliban government.