(IPS) news feature

''Your 30 minutes are over, go home,'' a police officer ordered some 50 Pakistani peace activists who had gathered in front of the UN offices here and were demanding an immediate stop to US-led military strikes in Afghanistan.

The protest, held Monday when US Secretary of State Colin Powell visited the country, was organised by the Citizen Peace Committee (CPC) and had participants from NGO workers, teachers, students, journalists and trade unionists.

These activists are worried not only about the effects of the strikes on Afghanistan - but also about a worrisome trend emerging at home. In its outrage against the US and British attacks on Afghanistan, the religious lobby is targeting civil society groups who have been calling for peace, and dubbing them ''western collaborators''.

Many NGO offices in the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP), which borders Afghanistan, and Bajaur Agency, where at least a dozen NGOs are located, have been attacked by unruly mobs in recent weeks.

The Pakistan NGO Forum reported that at least eight offices of NGO and social advocacy groups have been ransacked and burnt, including the Women and Children Welfare Organisation, the Darul Falah and Salik Development Foundation in Takht Bahi area, the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Core Group in Bajaur.

''All office equipment has been stolen. In some cases, homes of NGO workers have also been attacked," the Pakistan NGO Forum noted in a statement. Indeed, in the two weeks since the US-led bombing of Afghanistan, the country's peace movement finds itself sandwiched between security agencies and religious extremists.

The security agencies do not allow them to hold rallies to express their views for peace, and some religious groups have been attacking NGO offices for their supposedly 'westernised' ideas.

The peace movement, which traces its origin to the May 1998 nuclear detonations by India and Pakistan, has been pleading the rival governments to desist from what they call 'MAD' or mutually assured destruction.

These days it is trying to call for dialogue and alternatives to war, but often finds itself the target of hostility instead.

Adequate protection

On Wednesday last week, the NGO forum said that the government had not taken effective action to apprehend those who attacked NGO offices or provide adequate protection to those under threat.

''Of equal concern is that in more than one case, the district authorities did not make an effort to control the mobs or provide timely support in filing and pursuing police action,'' it added.

Aasim Sajjad Akhtar, coordinator of Citizen Peace Committee, said the government of President Pervez Musharraf has already banned the holding protests. But activists point to the irony that religious extremists have nevertheless been allowed free hand to hold protest rallies.

"Being law-abiding citizens, we are left with the option of getting permission from the deputy commissioner, head of the district administration, to hold protests, which most of time is not granted,'' said Aasim.

Asked why religious extremists are allowed to hold protests, a police officer told IPS that the groups' emotions are ''very high'' and they have ''big following in the public''. He added, ''They can hold rally whenever they like. By allowing them to do so, we take promises from them that they will not disturb law and order. In it more or less we have succeeded.''

Still, the Citizen Peace Committee has succeeded in holding around six protests in the Pakistani capital. Similar protests have been organised by peace activists in the main urban centres of Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar.

On Sept 29, nine members of the Citizen Peace Committee - four of them women wearing tattered clothing - addressed a press conference in front of Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, where many foreign media teams are staying.

They started marching barefoot toward the Afghan and American embassies to present peace resolutions.

But all of them were arrested by police and kept in lockup for hours. Later, they were released but not without being severely warned against not doing the same action again.

Indeed, many are concerned that the peace movement is not attracting much mass appeal - in contrast to the attention media and the public are giving to protests by religious and other groups.

''Today, the peace movement is very confused,'' activist Pervez Hoodbouy said. People are very upset about the bombing in Afghanistan and want that to be stopped, but are also weary of the Taliban's cruel policies within and outside the country which promoted religious fanaticism.''

''So far the peace activists have failed to make any balance in between these feelings,'' he added.

Many political analysts agree that Musharraf is right in saying that the religious lobby opposing the U.S. attacks is a minority - but say this minority is winning public sympathies in the aftermath of US strikes.

For instance, many Pakistanis say they are still waiting for the United States to come forward with concrete evidence linking the Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden to the Sept 11 attacks.

Thus, slogans like 'Bush Wanted Dead or Alive - Cash Award of 2 million rupees ( US32,300) on placards during a Monday protest here by the Pakistan-Afghan Defence Council, a coalition of religious parties, have become quite catchy for many people.

On the group's call on Monday, the day Powell arrived in Islamabad, a partial strike was observed to protest the U.S. attacks on Afghanistan, and most of the markets throughout the country remained close.

Scepticism by many Pakistanis also has its roots in their memories of US behaviour in relation to the South Asian country in the past.

Twice betrayed

They remain bitter about being 'betrayed' by Americans twice - in 1971 war with India when Washington did not come to the aid of Pakistan and the country was divided into two, and in 1990 when sanctions were imposed on Pakistan after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

Nazir Ahmed, a butcher who was watching a religious procession here, said that he did not support the calls of religious extremists of late, but ''likes listening'' to them. He asked: ''Should we trust the Americans again?''

Still, activists are trying to get their message across. On Sept 16, the Citizen Peace Committee handed over to a UN representative a resolution that said ''the United States and its allies have not fully pursued all diplomatic, non-military options to respond to the situation peaceably.''

''In this condition of reckless violence, citizens throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan feel more insecure. Their interests are being trampled upon by the United States and its allied governments and by the religious extremist groups,'' the group's letter said.

''There is a clear and urgent need for the United Nations to play its due role in combating terrorism of all kinds, whether state-sponsored or independent,'' it argued.

It called on the world body to ''force'' Washington to stop the attacks on Afghanistan and set up a task force to investigate the Sept 11 terror attacks, provide evidence about it and go to the International Court of Justice if needed.