Pakistanis march against NATO, US
Pakistan: About 5,000 Pakistani Islamists who oppose the
anti-terrorism alliance with Washington began a march to the border
Saturday in protest over the reopening of NATO supply routes into
Afghanistan.
The protesters joined a convoy of buses, trucks and cars, many
carrying the black-and-white striped flags of their Defence of Pakistan
coalition movement.
They will make stop-overs in various cities and towns on the
120-kilometre (74-mile) highway from the southwestern city of Quetta to
the town of Chaman, on the border with Afghanistan, where they will
arrive on Sunday.
Pakistan reopened overland routes to NATO convoys crossing into
neighbouring Afghanistan on July 3 after closing them in protest at a US
air raid that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November. “We have started
this march to protest against the resumption of NATO supply.
We warn our government to get out of the war on terrorism,” Defence
of Pakistan chairman Maulana Samiul Haq said as the convoy set off. “If
they think that the United States' war is only against Afghanistan, they
are wrong.
The US will target all the Muslim countries after strengthening its
control on Afghanistan,” Haq said. “But we won't allow them to do this,
we will fight against them and will fail their plans.” The Defence of
Pakistan has attracted large turnouts at rallies across the country,
which some see as a build-up to the formation of a political party to
contest the next general election, widely expected within the next year.
The convoy is scheduled to reach Chaman on Sunday, however the
protesters are unlikely to disrupt traffic at the border because the
march has been declared peaceful.
“We don't have any plan to go on the crossing point on the border,
instead we will stage a rally inside the Chaman town and closer to the
Afghanistan border,” Abdul Sattar Chishti, a local organiser of the
march, told AFP.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her Pakistani counterpart
Hina Rabbani Khar have hailed the reopening of the supply routes, saying
the allies were putting tensions behind them. AFP |