Pakistan's religious right held peaceful protests Friday against the U.S.-led war on Iraq, but withdrew demands for a nationwide strike, saying it would hurt ordinary Pakistanis.
"We have asked people to come out peacefully. We are not asking them to close their stores or their shops because they will lose money," said Ijaz Hashmi, a spokesman for United Action Forum, which was organizing protests.
"Americans have no regard for world opinion and by attacking Iraq they have shown their real, cruel face to the world," he said.
Though the strike was called off, many businesses were shuttered in conservative areas of the mainly Muslim country.
In the eastern city of Lahore, about 200 lawyers marched to condemn the U.S. attack and urge their government to support Iraq.
Security was tight around mosques and diplomatic missions, with police in Islamabad checking all cars entering a diplomatic neighborhood. Security was beefed up around hotels and embassies in violence-prone Karachi in the south.
The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad and two U.S. consulates in other cities would remain shut until reaction to the war could be properly gauged, embassy spokeswoman Linda Cheatham said.
In the tribal northwest stronghold of the religious coalition organizing anti-war protests shops were closed and a strike went ahead.
"We are observing a complete strike against the naked aggression of America," said Hajji Shah Nawaz, president of the Traders' Movement of Peshawar, capital of the North West Frontier Province where the United Action Forum or Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) rules.
In Peshawar, 5,000 protesters shouted anti-American slogans. They also condemned the American FBI and raids on nationals of Middle Eastern origin living in Pakistan and suspected of having links to al-Qaida.
The most significant recent arrest was Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a Kuwait national suspected of masterminding the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. Yassir al-Jaziri, an Algerian, was also recently arrested. Al-Jaziri was among the top 20 terrorists wanted by the United States.
The coalition won big in elections last year on a strong anti-American platform. Most of its member parties supported the now-deposed Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan and disapprove of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led anti-terror war.
On Thursday, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Kursheed Kasuri deplored the U.S.-led assault on Iraq, but also blamed Iraq's Saddam Hussein for failing to disarm.
Hafiz Abdul Rehman, president of the Lahore High Court Bar Association, complained that his government "did not even dare to strongly condemn the U.S. aggression,"
"Pakistan should come up with a clear stand on Iraq, and must play its role to stop the American aggression against a Muslim country," Rehman said at the lawyers' protest in Lahore.
Pakistan is currently a non-permanent member on the U.N. Security Council.