PTI workers block Nato supplies at five points in KP

Delawar Jan
PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers camped at five points in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday to obstruct Nato trucks as part of the party’s campaign to block the movement of Nato shipments to Afghanistan.
The ‘sit-ins’ are part of the protest against US drone strikes in Pakistan and will continue for an indefinite period. According to Ishtiaq Urmar, PTI’s Provincial Secretary Information, the party workers are holding ‘sit-ins’ at Khairabad Bridge, the Ring Road near Motorway, Hayatabad Toll Plaza on the Ring Road, Kohat and Dera Ismail Khan to hunt and stop Nato supplies.
Several PTI leaders said they did not allow even a single Nato truck to or from Afghanistan. Workers, who have set up camp at the Hayatabad Toll Plaza on the Ring Road, the highway used for Nato supplies, said they stopped nine containers. “Six containers were carrying supplies to Afghanistan for Nato forces and three were coming from there,” said Younas Zaheer, General Secretary of the PTI Peshawar chapter.
However, Ishtiaq Urmar said the containers were later allowed to proceed as they contained vegetables. He said trucks carrying supplies for Nato forces did not arrive on Sunday, though PTI workers stayed vigilant to halt the movement of these vehicles.
A number of workers including women sat in the camp on the Ring Road. “The Nato supplies are unacceptable for an indefinite time,” read a banner hung at the camp. It had another slogan that is getting popular with PTI workers: “Our land, our way.”
Young workers stood along the road and stopped every container in order to ascertain its destination. They checked shipment documents of every container-laden truck to look for Nato supplies. The checking of documents caused an altercation with a driver early in the day, PTI workers said. Ishtiaq Urmar and ISF President Suhail Afridi asked workers not to use violence while stopping the Nato containers.
“The documents that state the supplies are meant for Nato forces, we stop them,” Zaheersaid. “The Nato containers have stopped arriving after we obstructed nine trucks. They know we are not allowing such vehicles,” he added. He claimed that they did not allow even a single Nato container. He said the blockade of Nato supplies was being forced in line with the PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s statement. “This will continue for an indefinite period,” he said.
The PTI’s decision to not allow Nato trucks to pass through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa runs the risk of straining relations with the US, which is bankrolling millions of dollars of projects in the province that is ruled by Imran Khan’s party.
“We have burnt our boats,” said Member Provincial Assembly Fazl Elahi, suggesting that they did not care about relations with the US or consequences of putting a halt to Nato supplies.Imran Khan told Saturday’s anti-drone rally in Peshawar: “Nations are not made by begging before others, but by taking a stand on issues.”
Fazl Elahi said the confrontation was precipitated by the federal government’s reluctance to honour the bi-partisan resolution of the provincial assembly that asked for a halt to drone strikes in Pakistan.
Critics say Imran Khan is playing to the gallery by holding rallies in a province ruled by his party. They question why the provincial government doesn’t stop supplies through an executive order.
Fazl Elahi claimed, “We can do it if the federal government honours our resolution.” He also said the FIR in the drone attack in Hangu was lodged by the federal government, a statement that clashes with assertions of other PTI leaders.
He said the closure of Nato supplies could force the US to stop drone strikes. “It cannot afford supplies via Russia. That’s expensive,” he believed.
The PTI workers said they would stay in the camp round-the-clock to ensure that no truck passed. “We will sleep on the road,” Zaheer said, though late evening they were reported to have vacated the camp for the night. The PTI town level chapters, totalling four in Peshawar, will take turns to provide activists for the ‘sit-in’, the organisers said. The PTI, Youth and ISF wings of the party are currently taking part in the protest.
At Khairabad Bridge, PTI’s Nowshera district chapter president Niaz Muhammad and other workers set up the camp. They vowed not to allow Nato containers to enter Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from Punjab. In Kohat, district President Humayun Chacha led the workers on the Indus Highway and set up a camp at Jarma Chowk to block trucks carrying supplies to Nato in Afghanistan.