Tens of thousands of Pakistani Islamists wielding sticks and waving green flags rallied in Karachi against cartoons of Prophet Mohammad yesterday, the latest in a wave of protests in which five people have died.

A crowd of up to 50,000 rallied in the main commercial district of the sprawling southern city, and some torched effigies of US President George W. Bush and Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Protesters wearing green headbands shouted slogans of ?Here I come, O?Mohammad? and ?Death to blasphemers? as thousands of policemen and paramilitary troops looked on. The crowd was dispersed peacefully at the end, in contrast to the violence seen in Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar earlier this week.

A branch of US-based Citibank, and an office of the German company Siemens, hung black flags to mask their logos, as did a Christian hospital and several cinemas on the rally?s route.

Armed troops were stationed on the roof-tops and roadsides of a city that has been consumed by religious, sectarian and ethnic violence over the past two decades.

Urging participants to stay peaceful, Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman, a leader of the rally, called on Pakistan to sever ties with European countries where cartoons were published.

?The government should re-call its ambassadors and send back ambassadors of these countries,? Rehman, an influential madrasa principal, said.

<B>Balancing act </B>

Mohammed Atiq, a shopkeeper, said the government would risk violence if it tried to ?suppress the emotions of the people?. ?If Western countries can support each other by reprinting such vulgar cartoons then the government of Pakistan should also support the cause of Muslims,? Atiq said as he stood with crowd.

The government?s handling of the demonstrations is another illustration of the constant balancing act President Pervez Musharraf faces trying to assuage Islamist forces while pushing an agenda of ?enlightened moderation? in his conservative Muslim country.

Critics say the government?s past use of the Islamists, militants in Kashmir and the Taliban militia in Afghanistan, has resulted in ambivalence when it comes to confronting the challenges posed by these groups.

Demonstrations have been held almost every day this month in Pakistan since European papers republished the cartoons ? first published in Denmark in September.

Muslims believe it is blasphemous to depict the Prophet.

Although Pakistan is the world?s second most populous Muslim nation, the protests only grew in size this week, and the worst violence occurred in Peshawar, a stronghold of the Islamist parties in North West Frontier Province.

The Islamist parties have called for a nationwide strike on March 3, around the time President Bush is expected to visit Pakistan, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker said there was no change of plans, as yet.

?The White House has reaffirmed the plans of the president to proceed with his visit,? Crocker told journalists in Muzaffarabad, where US troops involved in a relief effort for Kashmiri earthquake victims handed over a mobile hospital unit to the Pakistan army.

Musharraf, a key ally in the US-led war on terrorism, chaired a meeting on the violence on Wednesday and warned that instigators would be dealt with sternly.

Officials have obliquely blamed hardline Islamist groups for stoking the violence.

At least three people, including an 8-year-old-boy, were killed in violent protests on Wednesday while two died a day earlier.

Police have arrested some 200 people in Lahore over the past 24 hours for involvement in violence on Tuesday and Wednesday, but that did not stop students loyal to Jamaat-e-Islami, the country?s most influential Islamist party, from holding a small rally inside the main university.

<B>Aamir ASHRAF</B>