Dera Ismail Khan (Pakistan), Jan. 17 (AP): Hundreds of religious hardliners chanting “jihad!” staged rallies in a Pakistani town against an army airstrike on a suspected al Qaida hideout and claimed it had killed innocent labourers, police and witnesses said today.

In the protest, about 1,000 supporters of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) party marched through Tank, a city about 160 km north of the scene of yesterday’s attack in the South Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border that the army said killed eight militants.

“They killed innocent labourers. There were no foreigners or (militant) training centres,” witnesses quoted rally leader Maulana Tahir as saying.

Activists of the JUI, a pro-Taliban Islamic group in the provincial government, chanted: “jihad!” during the protest and “death to Musharraf!” — referring to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, a key US ally.

A tribal militant vowed to take revenge for the airstrike, the BBC reported on its Urdu-language news website (www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/) today.

“We will take revenge within 10 to 15 days,” the BBC quoted Baitullah Mehsud as saying.

Yesterday’s operation has forced him to fight the Pakistani army, Mehsud said, according to the report. Mehsud is believed to be the leader of a band of militants from the area that was the scene of yesterday’s bombing. In February 2005, Mehsud was granted amnesty after promising that he would not attack security forces or harbour foreign militants.

Meanwhile, fighters targeted a roadside security post in the region with six rockets, an intelligence official said on condition of anonymity because of the secretive nature of his job. The rockets landed in a field and no one was hurt, he said.

The rocket attack before dawn today near Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, was the first such incident after Mehsud entered into a peace agreement with the government.