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Shabbir Hussain Imam / Associated Press Refugees from Afghanistan stream through the border Sunday in Torkham, Pakistan. Thousands have fled in fear of possible U.S. attacks on Afghanistan for harboring Osama bin Laden.

Pakistan to Taliban: Hand over bin Laden
Protests breakout over plan to help U.S.

By Kathy Gannon / Associated Press

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   ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Senior Pakistani officials today arrived in neighboring Afghanistan to deliver a warning: Deliver terror suspect Osama bin Laden or risk a massive retaliatory assault from the West.
   Although there was no indication of a deadline being given to the Taliban, a Pakistan military official said the Taliban will be told that a strike could occur as early as this weekend.
   Pakistan's decision to give "full support" to the United States drew widespread protest Sunday from hard-line Muslims. Demonstrators burned U.S. flags, shouted their support of bin Laden, and warned the government they would take up arms for Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia.
   "If Afghanistan is attacked, we will take part in the fight against America," shouted militant Muslim leader Abdul Ahad to an estimated 1,000 demonstrators in northwest Pakistan near the Afghan border. Protesters also shouted anti-American slogans in the federal capital, Islamabad.
   The high-level Pakistani delegation traveled early today to the Taliban's headquarters in the southern city of Kandahar.
   The Pakistani team was led by Maj.-Gen. Faiz Gilani, deputy chief of the Interservices Intelligence, which is believed to have played a part in the original creation of the Taliban. Pakistan's secret service also is said to arm and train Taliban fighters, a charge it denies.
   The delegation's first meeting was with Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, said a Taliban official in southern Kandahar. But the delegation was expected to meet with reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, who has declared himself Leader of the Muslims.
   Although the Americans would also want the Taliban to hand over all of bin Laden's aides and destroy his facilities, that is not a focus for today's talks, a senior Pakistani diplomat said.
   In other developments today:
   -- After six days of Afghanistan refugees streaming into Pakistan, Pakistan shut down its border, except for food and travelers with proper documents. It is confining the thousands of refugees already there to the dozens of camps in the north.
   -- Afghanistan's Taliban shut down its airspace today, two weeks after threatening to close it if the United Nations did not lift sanctions against its beleaguered airline, said an international diplomat.
   On Sunday, the Taliban called an "urgent" meeting where clerics from throughout Afghanistan expressed support for the leadership, condemned the United States and demanded proof of bin Laden's involvement in the airborne attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
   Some Pakistani religious leaders said the country's army-
   led rulers already have asked them to try pressuring the Taliban to hand over bin Laden. They have refused.
   "We told the government that we're very sorry but we can't do that and we don't have that kind of influence over the Taliban," said Amir-ul Azeem, a spokesman for Pakistan's best-organized religious party, Jamaat-e-
   Islami, or Party of Islam.
   Stocks in Pakistan have been plunging since last week's terrorism amid fears that the United States may launch retaliatory attacks on Afghanistan. On Sunday, Pakistan decided to shut down all three of its stock exchanges -- in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad -- for three days, starting Monday.