(3 Jan 2008) SHOTLIST
1. Various of people gathered for rally
2. Candidate speaking to crowd
3. Wide of crowd at rally, gunman from Lashkar-e-islam standing alert
4. Candidate speaking to crowd
5. Various of gathering listening to speeches from candidates, men with RPG guns watching
6. Close up of young man with AK 47 in his lap listening to the speech of candidates
7. Security men from Lashkar-e-islam with weapons
8. Various of Chief of Lashkar-e-islam Mangal Bagh is delivering speech to audience
9. Wide of crowd at rally
10. Lashkar-e-islam Flags
11. SOUNDBITE : (Pashto) Mangal Bagh, Chief of Lashkar-e-islam:
"We are doing this to protect our people from the troubles. Before, the candidates were spending money on posters and for election gatherings and due to this the people of the area face many problems and enmities among them. The peace in our area (khyber Agency) now is an example: we gather them (the candidates) in one place. After they have the permission only to go door to door in one car for their election campaign. We implement a ban on public meetings and other activities."
12. Various of Lashkar-e-islam security with heavy weapons
13. Various of Mangal Bagh getting in his car and driving away
STORYLINE
Thousands of tribesmen gathered on Thursday in support of radical Islamic group 'Lashkar-e-islam' or 'Army of Islam' in Bara, the main town of the Khyber tribal agency, as Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf denied reports that al-Qaida was getting stronger in Pakistan.
Close to ten thousand tribesmen gathered to listen to speeches by candidates from tribal areas of Pakistan.
Lashkar-e-Islam party's chief Mangal Bagh had invited the candidates to Khyber agency in order to gather people together to hear the different campaign platforms in a controlled environment.
Recent weeks had seen tensions rise between candidates and their supporters in the tribal areas.
"Before, the candidates were spending money on posters and for election gatherings and due to this the people of the area face many problems and enmities among them," Mangal Bagh told AP Television.
"The peace in our area now is an example: we gather them (the candidates) in one place," he said.
Pakistan's lawless Khyber tribal region lies near the Afghan border.
Pakistani authorities have only a limited grip on its tribal areas along the rugged, northwestern frontier with Afghanistan, which is populated by ethnic
Pashtuns with an ultra-conservative view of Islam shared by Taliban fundamentalists.
President Musharraf said on Thursday that Pakistan faced an increasing threat from Taliban militants and blamed 2 Islamic militant leaders, Baitullah Mehsud and Maulana Fazlullah, for 19 suicide attacks in the past three months.
Over the same period, militant-related violence killed 400 people and wounded 900 others, he said.
A day after Bhutto's killing, government officials accused Mehsud of orchestrating the attack.
A Mehsud spokesman denied responsibility.
Musharraf did not directly blame Mehsud on Thursday.
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