Tweet
Pakistanis demand end to U.S. alliance
On Line: 28 November 2011 17:53
In Print: Tuesday 29 November 2011
ISLAMABAD -- Pakistanis called on Islamabad Monday to break off its alliance with the United States and get out of the so-called War on Terror as protests against a deadly NATO strike pushed into a third day.
Twenty-four Pakistani soldiers were killed in the cross-border attack early Saturday by NATO helicopters and fighter jets, AFP reported.
Members of civil society, lawyers, traders and students organized the rallies, in major cities of the country of 167 million people, where opposition to the U.S. alliance is rampant.
Lawyers went on strike across the country, demonstrating outside court buildings, chanting slogans against NATO and the United States, officials from bar associations across the country said.
“We marched at the Islamabad High Court premises and expressed our anger against this attack, none of us went to the courts today,” Ashraf Gujjar, president of Islamabad High Court Bar Association, told AFP after one rally.
“The government should cut NATO supplies permanently, take back military bases from the US and plead that this cases violates the borders in the UN Security Council,” he quoted from a resolution passed by lawyers.
In Peshawar several hundred students blocked a main road, chanting “Death to U.S.” and “Quit the War on Terror”, an AFP reporter saw.
Scores of tribesmen also gathered in Mohmand, the tribal district where the soldiers were killed, to protest against the attack and demand that the government change its pro-U.S. policy, Khalid Khan, an administration official in the district told AFP.
Some 200 lawyers blocked the national highway to the east of Karachi, chanting slogans in the favour of Pakistani army, police said.
In Multan, Jamatud Dawa, a pro-Kashmir group, gathered a crowd of several hundred, burning an effigy of U.S. President Barack Obama and U.S. flags, an AFP photographer said.
In Pakistani-administered Kashmir, around 600 people in the town of Garhi Dupatta joined the relatives of a soldier killed in the attack, and chanted slogans against the US, police official Ishtiaq Gilani told AFP.
“The government must retaliate and should suspend the relations with the U.S. until there is a fair and free investigation,” Zafar Iqbal, 25, the brother of fallen soldier Tahir Iqbal told AFP from the protest.
NATO strikes lasted two hours
The NATO airstrikes lasted almost two hours and continued even after commanders at the bases pleaded with coalition forces to stop, Pakistan's military said Monday, the Associated Press reported.
NATO has described the incident as "tragic and unintended" and has promised a full investigation.
Unnamed Afghan officials have claimed that Afghan commandos and U.S. special forces were conducting a mission on the Afghan side of the border and took incoming fire from the direction of the Pakistani posts. They responded with airstrikes.
Ties between Pakistan and the United States were already deteriorating before the terrorist attack and have sunk to new lows since, delivering a major setback to American hopes of enlisting Islamabad's help in negotiating a close-up to the 10-year-old Afghan war.
Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said the Pakistani troops at two border posts were the victims of unprovoked aggression. He said the attack lasted almost two hours and that commanders had contacted NATO counterparts while it was going on, asking that "they get this fire to cease, but somehow it continued."
The Pakistan army has previously said its soldiers retaliated "with all weapons available" to the attack.
On Line: 28 November 2011 17:53
In Print: Tuesday 29 November 2011
ISLAMABAD -- Pakistanis called on Islamabad Monday to break off its alliance with the United States and get out of the so-called War on Terror as protests against a deadly NATO strike pushed into a third day.
Twenty-four Pakistani soldiers were killed in the cross-border attack early Saturday by NATO helicopters and fighter jets, AFP reported.
Members of civil society, lawyers, traders and students organized the rallies, in major cities of the country of 167 million people, where opposition to the U.S. alliance is rampant.
Lawyers went on strike across the country, demonstrating outside court buildings, chanting slogans against NATO and the United States, officials from bar associations across the country said.
“We marched at the Islamabad High Court premises and expressed our anger against this attack, none of us went to the courts today,” Ashraf Gujjar, president of Islamabad High Court Bar Association, told AFP after one rally.
“The government should cut NATO supplies permanently, take back military bases from the US and plead that this cases violates the borders in the UN Security Council,” he quoted from a resolution passed by lawyers.
In Peshawar several hundred students blocked a main road, chanting “Death to U.S.” and “Quit the War on Terror”, an AFP reporter saw.
Scores of tribesmen also gathered in Mohmand, the tribal district where the soldiers were killed, to protest against the attack and demand that the government change its pro-U.S. policy, Khalid Khan, an administration official in the district told AFP.
Some 200 lawyers blocked the national highway to the east of Karachi, chanting slogans in the favour of Pakistani army, police said.
In Multan, Jamatud Dawa, a pro-Kashmir group, gathered a crowd of several hundred, burning an effigy of U.S. President Barack Obama and U.S. flags, an AFP photographer said.
In Pakistani-administered Kashmir, around 600 people in the town of Garhi Dupatta joined the relatives of a soldier killed in the attack, and chanted slogans against the US, police official Ishtiaq Gilani told AFP.
“The government must retaliate and should suspend the relations with the U.S. until there is a fair and free investigation,” Zafar Iqbal, 25, the brother of fallen soldier Tahir Iqbal told AFP from the protest.
NATO strikes lasted two hours
The NATO airstrikes lasted almost two hours and continued even after commanders at the bases pleaded with coalition forces to stop, Pakistan's military said Monday, the Associated Press reported.
NATO has described the incident as "tragic and unintended" and has promised a full investigation.
Unnamed Afghan officials have claimed that Afghan commandos and U.S. special forces were conducting a mission on the Afghan side of the border and took incoming fire from the direction of the Pakistani posts. They responded with airstrikes.
Ties between Pakistan and the United States were already deteriorating before the terrorist attack and have sunk to new lows since, delivering a major setback to American hopes of enlisting Islamabad's help in negotiating a close-up to the 10-year-old Afghan war.
Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said the Pakistani troops at two border posts were the victims of unprovoked aggression. He said the attack lasted almost two hours and that commanders had contacted NATO counterparts while it was going on, asking that "they get this fire to cease, but somehow it continued."
The Pakistan army has previously said its soldiers retaliated "with all weapons available" to the attack.
Comment