Pakistani Alliance Announces More Anti-NATO Marches

Islamabad, July 10, IRNA – A Pakistani alliance of dozens of religious and political parties Monday announced to organize two more long-march rallies against government's decision to allow NATO forces use its land routes for in Afghanistan. Leaders of the Defense of Pakistan Council (DPC) said that thousands of people will march in the southwestern Balochistan province on July 14-15. The third phase of the long march will be held on July 16th and 17th in the country’s northwest, Chief of the DPC, Maulana Sami-ul-Haq said. Pakistan announced the reopening of NATO supply line after a nearly seven-month closure over the the killing of 24 soldiers in a NATO airstrike last November. The supply line was unblocked following apology by the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over the losses of Pakistani security personnel. Chief of the DPC, Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, told thousands of people in Islamabad at the end of a two-day long march that the people of Pakistan will end the supremacy of the US in their country. “We will throw the Americans and their supporters from Pakistan,” Haq told the big gathering outside the parliament house. The long march was started from the eastern city of Lahore in Punjab province on Sunday and after a night stay on the way, the marchers arrived in Islamabad, their last destination. Security measures had been taken in the capital and the marchers would gather near the parliament house. Addition police force was deployed in Islamabad to maintain peace and order. The march ended peacefully in Islamabad after central leaders delivered speeches and claimed that the march was expression of thousands of Pakistanis against the U.S. and its NATO allies. Haq said that next phase of the protest will be announced after the next month’s march. He said thousands of people will march from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province upto Chaman, the border point with Afghanistan, on July 14-15. He said in the third phase, a big march will be organized from Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa upto Torkham, the border point with Afghanistan. A central leader of the DPC, Hafiz Saeed, told the marchers that the long-march was aimed at getting rid of the Americans. He regretted that the U.S. has continued drone strikes but the rulers allowed the Americans to use Pakistani routes for supply to its occupation forces in Afghanistan. Chief of Jamaat-e-Islami party, Munawar Hasan, said on the occasion that the mammoth march reflect the anti-US sentiments in Pakistan. He said Pakistanis hate the US but unfortunately the rulers are begging American friendship./end