Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan's army targeted only terrorists in its raid two days ago that killed about 80 gunmen in the northwestern tribal district near the border with Afghanistan, President Pervez Musharraf said.

``Anyone who is saying that these were innocent Taliban is telling lies,'' Musharraf said yesterday in Islamabad, according to the official Associated Press of Pakistan. ``We were watching them since the last six, seven days. They were all militants, using weapons, doing military training.''

Thousands of tribesmen yesterday staged protests in the Bajur region saying the raid on a compound at an Islamic religious school killed students and teachers. The army said the school near Khar was used as a terrorist training camp and was linked to the al-Qaeda network.

Pakistan denied a report that the attack targeted Ayman al- Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's No. 2, who escaped a U.S. air strike in the region in January. Pakistan's Islamic political parties oppose Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led crackdown on terrorism. His government has arrested more than 600 suspected terrorists since 2001 and deployed about 90,000 soldiers along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.

Qazi Husain Ahmad, the chief of Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal, led a protest rally yesterday in Bajur, said Shahid Shamsi, a spokesman for the Islamic alliance. At least 30 of the people killed in the raid were under the age of 15, he said. The alliance has 60 of the 342 seats in the National Assembly.

Pakistan's government is now dealing with the phenomenon of ``Talibanization,'' Musharraf said yesterday at a security seminar. Some tribal groups in Pakistan support the Taliban militia that was ousted in Afghanistan in 2001.

Afghan Criticism

Musharraf has rejected criticism by neighboring Afghanistan that his government is failing to combat gunmen linked to al- Qaeda and the Taliban sheltering on Pakistani territory. Pakistan became a key U.S. ally against terrorism after Musharraf in 2001 withdrew support for the Taliban that sheltered al-Qaeda.

In September, Musharraf's government signed an accord with tribal leaders in the border region of North Waziristan to expel foreign al-Qaeda-linked fighters from the area.

Terrorism has to be combated by force, Musharraf said yesterday. Extremism, however, is a state of mind that needs to be dealt with through a different strategy. The president said the two should be handled through a plan that involves military force, political elements, government administration and reconstruction.

The majority of civilians ``take strong exception to the presence of foreign miscreants'' in Pakistan, army spokesman General Shaukat Sultan said two days ago. Some religious elements may try to exploit the Oct. 30 raid, he said.

There was no ``high-value target'' at the camp, Sultan said after the raid.

Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor who is Osama bin Laden's top aide, said he escaped a U.S. air strike in January on the village of Damadola near Afghanistan, according to a videotape aired by al-Jazeera television Jan. 30. The raid sparked anti-U.S. protests in Pakistani cities, including Karachi and Islamabad.

To contact the reporters on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net; Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 31, 2006 18:06 EST