Pakistanis ready to give blood as outrage grows

Javed lay down on a makeshift bed by a dusty road in the north- western Pakistan city of Peshawar and held up his left arm to…

Javed lay down on a makeshift bed by a dusty road in the north- western Pakistan city of Peshawar and held up his left arm to donate blood. The small sack filled within minutes, ready to be sent to hospitals in neighbouring Afghanistan for Taliban fighters and civilians injured by the continuous bombing.

Javed, a slim 18-year-old hairdresser, came to the open-air blood donation centre yesterday afternoon with two of his teenage friends. "We came because we want to help our injured Muslim brothers," he said, rolling down his sleeve. "They need my blood and I can help them in this way."

Asked whether he would be prepared to go to Afghanistan to help the ruling Taliban's resistance to the military attacks there, Javed replied: "Yes, definitely. I would like to go if needed."

The blood donor camp outside the White Mosque on the outskirts of Peshawar is one of two set up in the city eight days ago by a non-governmental organisation and a fundamentalist religious party, Jamiat-Ulama-e-Islam (JUI).

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By yesterday afternoon 635 men, most of them aged in their 20s and 30s, had come to give blood, according to the camp's manager, Mr Amanullah Haqqani from JUI.

A cloth sign draped above the stall urged people to "come and donate blood for the injured and suffering people of Afghanistan". A small radio broadcast a religious poem saying many innocent Afghan people were being injured at the hands of the Americans.

Dozens of onlookers gathered around the partially screened-off stall where five crudely made wooden-framed beds covered with soiled blankets and sheets were lined up only feet away from a busy traffic lane.

Flies buzzed around in the afternoon heat and the stony earth underfoot was littered with discarded blood-daubed cotton buds. The station had no running water supply and the medical attendants did not wear gloves.

Once the blood sacks were filled they were sealed and tossed casually into a cardboard box perched on a table.

Mr Haqqani said passers-by were keen to play even a modest part in helping the Afghan people. "Many people who come here to donate blood say 'take two bags', but for medical reasons we can only take one bag," he said.

In Peshawar city centre, more roadside stalls have been springing up in the past few weeks, many also established by religious parties. The stallholders are collecting donations of money, clothes, blankets and jewellery for Taliban fighters and civilians in Afghanistan, as well as refugees forced to flee to Pakistan.

One of the more decorative stalls at the city's historic memorial square, Chowk Yadagnar, was yesterday bedecked with newspaper images of victims of the US bombs in Afghanistan and soft-focus posters of Osama bin Laden, a rocket trailing fire above his head. Another poster for sale simply had an image of a Kalashnikov along with the words "Kill those who kill innocent people".

Mr Rhatullah said 50,000 rupees (IR£800) had been collected in one week, with donations ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 rupees per person. An average teacher's monthly salary in Pakistan is between 6,000 and 10,000 rupees.

"The people coming from Afghanistan say 'We are helpless. We have left our households and valuables inside Afghanistan and we don't have anything, " Mr Rhatullah said. "The bombing is being carried out on the civilians. There are many casualties and deaths."

Pakistani people were angry about the civilian injuries and did not believe Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organisation carried out last month's attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

He said: "This is just a story to pave the way for America to attack Afghanistan because America does not like a true Islamic government in any part of the world. We condemn the attacks on the World Trade Centre but at the same time we do not feel that what is going on in Afghanistan is right."

Mr Rhatullah's counter-theory was that the "Jewish lobby" in collaboration with the CIA carried out the September 11th attacks.

He said many young men had approached his stall expressing a desire to go to Afghanistan to join the Taliban fighters.

Thousands of other Pakistani men were reported crossing into Afghanistan from north-eastern Pakistan, armed with rifles, machine guns and even rocket launchers.