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Thousands
block NATO convoy route to protest US drone strikes in Pakistan
Thousands
of demonstrators protesting US drone strikes in Pakistan blocked a
main road Saturday in the Peshawar province used to transport NATO
supplies to and from Afghanistan.
RT,
23
November, 2013
The
protests was led by the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which is
led by Imran Khan, a former international cricketer now turned
politician.
They
were supported by their allies in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial
government and they were also joined by the Jamaat -i-Islami (JI) and
the Awami Jamhoori Ittehad (AJIP) political parties.
“We
will put pressure on America, and our protest will continue if drone
attacks are not stopped,” Khan
told reporters.
“We
are here to give a clear message that now Pakistanis cannot remain
silent over drone attacks,”
said Shah Mehmood Qureshi, a senior member of the PTI, addressing the
protesters.
Imran
Khan has been a fierce critic of US drone attacks, arguing that they
violate Pakistan’s sovereignty. Khan said that the Pakistani
government is doing nothing to stop drone attacks except for issuing
statements of condemnation and that the protest would continue
indefinitely.
Khan
stressed that NATO supplies would not be allowed to pass through
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, formerly called North-West Frontier Province, and
added that the province’s PTI-led government had the mandate to
block NATO trucks from passing through its territory.
Earlier
Imran Khan had
warned that NATO supply routes will be blocked if continuing US
drone strikes in Pakistan threaten the country’s peace talks with
the Taliban.
Activists
of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) shout slogans as they arrive to
attend a protest rally in Peshawar on November 23, 2013 (AFP Photo /
A Majeed)
An
attack on November 1 killed the former leader of the Pakistan
Taliban, a day before the Pakistani government said it was going to
invite him to peace talks. Officials said they were enraged by the
attacks, although the Pakistani government is known to have supported
some of the drone attacks in the past.
Party
workers from the PTI and the JI travelled to Peshawar from across
Pakistan and an estimated 10,000 people participated in Saturday’s
protests. The protesters shouted anti US slogans such as “Stop
drone attacks” and “Down
with America”.
“I
am participating in today’s sit-in to convey a message to America
that we hate them since they are killing our people in drone attacks.
America must stop drone attacks for peace in our country,”
Hussain Shah, a 21 year old university student, told Dawn, Pakistan's
oldest and most widely read English-language newspaper.
American
drones are performing regular extrajudicial killings of Islamist
leaders, accompanied by the collateral damage of many civilian
casualties.
Strict
security measures were in place Saturday, with 500 police personnel
on duty. Trucks were directed to use an alternative route, although
Tahir Khan, a government official, said there was normally little
NATO traffic Saturday as most of the trucks arrive by Friday night to
clear the border crossing.
However,
protesters said that they would begin to stop trucks carrying NATO
supplies through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from Sunday night, which could
spark conflict with the federal government in Pakistan.
The
US embassy in Islamabad declined to comment
A
NATO supply truck driver waits for a security check at the NLC check
point in Quetta (AFP Photo / Banaras Khan)
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