Sizable Protest in Pakistan

Women in horse-drawn carriages and thousands of flag-waving backers of a religious coalition paraded through this southern Pakistani city Sunday to protest a possible U.S.-led war against Iraq.

Police estimated that at least 100,000 people, some chanting “America is the terrorist,” joined the march in what authorities said was the largest demonstration against an attack on Iraq in a U.S. ally in the war on terrorism.

Organizers, who claimed that 3 million people took part, said it was the first of two planned “Million Man Marches” in Pakistan against the war.

“It’s a mammoth crowd; this is impressive,” deputy police chief Tariq Jamil said.

Many marchers carried the flags of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, the religious coalition that organized the demonstration.

“Any attack on Iraq would be considered an attack on the Muslim world,” Qazi Hussain Ahmed, leader of the religious coalition in Pakistan’s National Assembly, told demonstrators.

The march in Pakistan was one of several antiwar events around the world Sunday.

In India, an estimated 10,000 protesters marched silently in Hyderabad, a southern city that is 50% Muslim. It was the third protest in India in four days.

In Hiroshima, Japan, a city devastated by a U.S. atomic bomb in World War II, about 6,000 people gathered in a park to spell out the words “No War” in a human chain.

In Sana, Yemen’s capital, about 20,000 students marched toward the U.S. Embassy but changed direction on orders from security forces.