Delawar Jan
PESHAWAR: Workers of
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) held meetings across the province to pull
thousands of people to a sit-in against drone attacks in Peshawar that would
block Nato supplies in the backdrop of the first strike by the unmanned plane
in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The attack that also
killed a couple of children outraged the PTI leaders and general public. The hit
would possibly provide a shot in the arm for the November 23rd protest,
prompting people to pour into Peshawar to participate in the sit-in against the
US and its operations in Pakistan.
The PTI said it would
place containers on the Ring Road, used for trucking the supplies, today
(Friday) and halt flow of supplies to Nato forces in Afghanistan. “We will put
containers on the Ring Road on Friday to block it for the Nato supplies,” said
Ishtiaq Urmar, PTI’s provincial information secretary.
Imran Khan, leader of
the PTI, said the supplies would be blocked until the United States assured a
halt to the controversial strikes within Pakistan. His announcement makes the
situation uncertain as Pakistan has struggled to persuade Washington to stop
the attacks. The Hangu attack came a day after Special Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz
said the US has assured it would not carry out drone attacks if Pakistan
initiated talks with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. If Imran Khan lives up to
his announcement, the protest could prolong for weeks, if not months.
To show its
seriousness, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government cabinet meeting is being held
today to take stock of the situation after the first drone attack in the
province. The PTI had distanced its provincial government of the Saturday’s
sit-in to avoid straining relations with the federal government. The cabinet
meeting would decide how to react to the attack.
Imran Khan directed his
anger against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for his alleged silence over “the
attack that violated the limits of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and killed our
citizens.”
Five people were
reported killed and three injured in the attack on Islami Madrassa Muktaba Darul Uloom in Tal area
of Hangu.
Ishtiaq Urmar said he
did not know whether the provincial government protested to the federal
government over the attack as he could not speak for the KP government.
The Central Information
Secretary of the PTI Shireen Manzari lashed out at the US and Pakistan
government and the military. “This
was a declaration of war against the people of Pakistan by the US,” she said in
a statement. “[I] demand to know whether the Pakistan government and military
were sleeping while Pakistan was being attacked or were they complicit in this
latest drone attack?” he asked.
Mazari in a texted
message to The News said the fresh attack would increase the importance of the
PTI protest against drones, where Imran Khan would address people. Referred to
her and Imran Khan’s statements, she said questions had been asked from the
federal government over the incident.
Ishtiaq Urmar said that
his party would assemble around 80,000 on Peshawar’s Ring Road. Imran Khan has
asked people to participate in the rally to tell the they were against drone
attacks and supported peace efforts in Pakistan. Urmar said that all day
various organisations of the party held meetings to make arrangements for the
sit-in.
PTI had already held a
sit-in in 2010 against the Nato supplies but then the Awami National Party was
ruling the province. This time his party is governing the province. Then it
could not block supplies to the forces of the US and other Nato member
countries engaged in the 12-year-old war there.
Pakistan halted Nato
supplies to Afghanistan in 2011 but not due to opposition by Imran Khan.
Islamabad had angrily reacted to the killing of its 24 soldiers in Salala on
the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
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