Extremists challenge Pakistan

SHINGLIBALLA, PAKISTAN

Angry bands of Himalayan rebels unload their ancient carbines and new machine guns across the ancient Silk Road, vowing to avenge what they call US murders of their ethnic kin inside neighboring Afghanistan.

The only thing passing through the blocked road beneath them is a lone camel loaded down with water and some food rations destined for militants farther up the highway. For the rebels, supplies are moved by a six-seat cable car that is run by a diesel-powered engine.

Farther up, a little north of the town of Batgram and south of Bisham, unarmed villagers roll boulders away from a five-day blockade that the government claims has been lifted, but which rebel leaders say they expect back in place within days if Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf does not make concessions to the country's religious right.

The Silk Road blockade and threat of similar stoppages present a major challenge to President Musharraf. His government only recently broke off ties with several of these militant Islamic religious groups - ones that are extremely loyal to Osama bin Laden, who would like nothing better than to see the pro-Western government fall. And it's clear that is something Musharraf fears: He has repeatedly asked the United States in recent days to finish up its bombing campaign against neighboring Afghanistan before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins.

"These extremists and their leaders are targeting the Musharraf government, but, in fact, they want to turn Pakistan into another Islamic state that will defy the West," says Imtiaz Alam, a senior columnist with The News, a leading English-language daily in Pakistan. "These extremist groups, which still don't have any broad support, are in a good position now to capitalize on the simmering anti-Americanism in Pakistan over the airstrikes in Afghanistan."

There is already ample evidence that this snaking stretch of macadam leading toward China's Xinjiang province is fast becoming fertile ground for Mr. bin Laden's twisted vision of Islam.

His picture is being sold in the local bazaars like Michael Jordan basketball cards in Washington. And the militants, when asked where their loyalties lie, shout: "Long live Osama bin Laden," and "Long live Mullah Omar," the senior cleric and ruler of Afghanistan. After each rousing cheer echoes across the terraced hillsides and through the dense pine forests, the armed men fire off rounds to let Pakistan's Frontier Constabulatory on patrol down the road know that they aren't in a mood to bargain.

The Pakistani rebels, who are leading an on-again and off-again 250-mile-long blockade of Pakistan's Karakorum Highway, have given Musharraf a Nov. 7 deadline to end his support for US-led airstrikes on Afghanistan and free militant Islamic leaders who he has placed under house arrest.

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