Hundreds of citizens called on the government on Monday to break off its alliance with the US and get out of the war against al Qaeda as protests against a lethal NATO strike pushed into a third day.
Twenty-four soldiers were killed in the cross-border attack early on Saturday by NATO helicopters and fighter jets. Members of civil society, lawyers, traders and students organised the rallies, still relatively small, in major cities across the country. Lawyers went on strike, demonstrating outside court buildings, chanting slogans against NATO and the US, 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, a number of student federations and organisations held separate protests against the NATO forces attack, blocked a main road and chanted “Death to US” and “Quit the war on terror”.
Scores of Mehsud and Barki tribesmen also gathered in Mohmand Agency where the soldiers were killed, to protest against the attack and demand the government change its pro-US policy, administration official Khalid Khan said. The tribesmen said the NATO forces had completely failed in bringing peace to war-torn Afghanistan and were now attacking peaceful citizens in FATA through drone and helicopters strike.Some 200 lawyers blocked the national highway in Karachi, chanting slogans in the favour of the army, police said. Meanwhile, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) observed Pakistan Solidarity and Stability Day on Monday as a protest against the NATO forces’ attack.MQM chief Altaf Hussain said it was an attack on the national sovereignty and security and endorsed the decision of his party’s Rabita Committee to observe the day as Pakistan Solidarity and Stability Day. In Azad Jammu and 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.
Rage grips country over NATO attack
