Pakistanis Push Back against Taliban
COLLINS: The cultural capital of Pakistan is increasingly becoming a target of Taliban militants, but as CNN's Ivan Watson reports, many people in Lahore are ready to fight back.</s>IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Another angry protest in Pakistan, but this time the crowd is demonstrating against the Taliban.</s>JUGNU MOHSIN, NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER: I'm a journalist of 20 years' standing.</s>WATSON (on camera): And you're scared.</s>MOHSIN: I will fight them to my last breath and to the last drop of blood in my body. I'm not scared. I want the army to protect us. That's what they're here for. I want the government to protect us. I want them to free every inch of Pakistan from the scourge of the Taliban.</s>WATSON (voice-over): It's a small rally in Lahore, one that's not very well organized.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's give (ph) our banners</s>WATSON: But these writers and intellectuals say it's about time someone stood up to the Taliban's campaign of violence and intimidation.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're lunatics. They're psychotics. They want to change the way we exist.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And if the Taliban takes over, then I will be on the road getting flogged by one of them like they did in</s>WATSON: Lahore is the culture capital of Pakistan, a city famous for its music, dance, poetry and theater, art forms the Taliban has brutally repressed in areas the militants control. Though Lahore is hundreds of miles away from the Taliban's strongholds in the mountains of northwestern Pakistan, security forces have adopted a siege mentality as militants have extended their reach. A heavily armed escort accompanies Police Chief Parvez Rathore, even when he walks just outside the walls of his headquarters. (on camera): How many people have you lost?</s>PARVEZ RATHORE, CHIEF, LAHORE POLICE: Last year, we lost 39 people in</s>WATSON: Just in Lahore.</s>RATHORE: Just in Lahore.</s>WATSON (voice-over): In March, militants swarmed a nearby police academy, killing seven cadets. They've also bombed cinemas and theaters in Lahore and ambushed a visiting cricket team from Sri Lanka. The police say these attacks would not be possible without local support.</s>JAMAL RAHMAN, MUSICIAN: And they're here. They're in Lahore. They have groups of the Taliban just going around and intimidating people, causing fear, you know, telling women to cover up, and if they don't, they'd shoot them.</s>WATSON: Jamal Rahman and his cousin, Ider (ph), are members of a Lahore-based band called Lal (ph).</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to try and get people aware and try and get them active and motivated to fight against this militancy.</s>WATSON: On television and in concert, these politically active musicians have been trying to rally society against the growing threat of the Taliban. Is this the beginning of a mass movement of moderate Pakistanis against the Taliban? Or is it the swan song of a wealthy urban elite who could be the first to leave if the suicide bombers and insurgents succeed in further destabilizing this country? Ivan Watson, CNN, Lahore, Pakistan.</s>COLLINS: Tonight, a special "Time 100/AC 360" hour, "The World's Most Influential People." U2 frontman and activist Bono is featured, interviewing actor George Clooney about his work in Darfur. The two met up at Rose Theater at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.</s>BONO, FOUNDER, ONE.ORG: Do you think your activism in other areas, particularly for Darfur, has made you take your eye off the ball of what's happening, the disintermediation that's happening in the movie industry. And I know that's been an accusation of me. People saying, you know, you're over there campaigning, but, you know, you're missing what's going on in your own backyard.</s>GEORGE CLOONEY, FOUNDER, NOTONOURWATCHPROJECT.ORG: Yes, sure. But you know, it's a funny thing. You'll come back and there will be people arguing over something, and you'll go, well, I just spent, you know, six days with, you know, two rebel leaders who have killed each other's families, and they're trying to decide how they're going to exist in a -- co-exist in a town of 1,100 people. And somehow, those arguments in Hollywood seem really small to me.</s>COLLINS: Who will make the list of "Time" magazine's 100 Most Influential People? Find out tonight at 11:00 p.m. on the CNN/"Time 100" special with Anderson Cooper. The recession putting an end to gridlock in some cities. Commuters get a break, but only because so many others have lost their jobs.