Pakistan urged to cut US-NATO supply line

PAKISTAN: Thousands of anti-government protes-ters demanded that Pakistan shut the route along which supplies are ferried to U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, add-ing to the growing pressure on Islamabad's beleaguered leadership.

The demonstration Thursday by more than 10,000 people in the northwestern city of Peshawar also focused on a recent series of U.S. missile strikes against suspected al-Qaida and Taliban targets in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas along the Afghan border and Pakistani military offensives against Islamic insurgents in the area.

Leaders of the demonstration drew links between the missile attacks and the supply line, saying the equipment was being used for attacks on Pakistani soil and vowing to shut down the convoys.

"We will no longer let arms and ammunition pass through ... and reach the hands of American and NATO forces in Afghanis-tan," Sirajul Haq, the provincial head of hardline Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, told the crowd. "They are using the same against our innocent brothers, sisters and children."

ISLAMABAD, Friday, AP