Pro-Taliban Afghans hold demonstration against U.S., ex-king

ISLAMABAD, Oct. 4 (Kyodo) - Nearly 2,000 supporters of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban on Thursday demonstrated in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad against the United States and former Afghan King Zahir Shar, Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported.

The rally was the third of its kind since the U.S. began mobilizing forces for a possible military strike against the Islamic fundamentalist regime following the devastating Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Denouncing the U.S. and Zahir Shar, now living in exile in Rome, the protesters repeated their mantra that they are ready to wage a jihad, or holy war, if the U.S. attacks the Taliban, the Pakistan-based AIP said.

''Death to America. Death to Zahir Shar,'' the demonstrators were quoted as shouting. They also reiterated their opposition to a U.S. demand that the Taliban deliver Saudi-born Islamic militant Osama bin Laden, who the U.S. has named as the prime suspect behind the terror attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington.

''Osama bin Laden is our guest,'' they said. Zahir Shar, who has been living in exile since being ousted in 1973 by a Soviet-backed coup, has been viewed by some as the only figure who can bind Afghanistan's disparate forces into a cohesive administration.

The Taliban have dismissed the idea of Zahir Shar returning following reports that the U.S. and other Western nations are trying to install him as head of a broad-based interim Afghan government.