Tag: Protests

FAISALABAD - The business community of Faisalabad that has been having strong reservations about Pakistan International Airlines' Faisalabad-Karachi flight schedule is now forced to launch protest against its cruel policies, said Zafar Iqbal Sarwar, chairman, ad-hoc committee on PIA set up by Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI).
Zafar Iqbal, a renowned businessman and executive member of FCCI, was speaking at a press conference jointly hosted by the chamber and

ISLAMABAD - Workers of Aalami Tanzeem Ahl-e-Sunnat (ATAS) held a gathering outside the National Press Club (NPC) on Wednesday to protest against the insult to Islamic sanctities by a US pastor. Holding placards, protestors shouted slogans against the US and pastor Terry Jones. Addressing the gathering, ATAS leader Pir Muhammad Afzal Qadri said if the US could came to Iraq and Afghanistan to search Osama bin Laden, why had it not investigated the acts of the US pastor. "I, as a well

RABAT - Several hundred people gathered Sunday in Rabat and Casablanca for the start of protests expected in several Moroccan cities to call for further democratic reforms and social justice.
More than 1,000 people, including many Islamists, rallied in Rabat in the morning. "The Moroccan people demand change!" protesters shouted in the city, calling for the government to resign and holding up placards reading: "For the freedom and dignity of the Moroccan people."
No major

LAHORE - They yelled their guts out chanting slogans, carried banners in scorching sunlight and discussed and then discussed again about the issues that require solutions, and now they are hungry and thirsty. They are protestors and need something that could satisfy their hunger; anything that could be regarded as food. The market demand for food, calls in for food, and soon eateries stalls are established on the road where protests are held most commonly.
This is Charing Cross,

ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR - Religious and social organisations on Thursday staged protests across the country against the release of Raymond Davis, who killed two Pakistanis in Lahore on January 27. In Islamabad, hundreds of JI workers staged a protest demonstration at Aabpara market, strongly criticising both the PPP and PML-N for releasing the CIA contractor.
The JI called Davis' release an attack on Pakistan's sovereignty and vowed to stage nationwide protests against the

LAHORE - The city's traffic was backed up for miles as members of the Young Doctors Association (YDA) blocked almost all major roads on Thursday. Huge traffic jams were seen on The Mall, Canal Bank Road, Ferozepur Road and Jail Road. Students from Allama Iqbal Medical College came out of the back gate of the college along the Canal Bank Road and sat on the road blocking it completely. The traffic coming from the city side on the Canal Bank Road was diverted from the new campus

SANAA - At least 150 people were wounded as Yemeni security forces tried to break up a rally in the Red Sea city of Hudaida demanding an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh's rule, a doctor and witnesses said on Wednesday.
The impoverished Arabian Peninsula state, neighbour to oil giant Saudi Arabia, has been hit by weeks of protests trying to shake loose Saleh's 32-year grip on power. Both pro and anti-government factions appear to have increasingly resorted to violence in the

JEDDAH - A senior Saudi prince said in comments published on Sunday that loyal Saudis had foiled plans by "evil people" to stage protests. Web activists had slated March 11 as the first day for mass protests around the country in favour of democratic government and a constitutional rather than absolute monarchy.
But a religious ruling banning demonstrations in the world's biggest oil exporter, and a heavy police crackdown in key cities, appeared to intimidate most who are

SANAA - Police killed a boy and wounded hundreds of people in pre-dawn clashes in the Yemeni capital on Saturday and a 12-year-old youth died during anti-government demonstrations in the southern city of Mukalla, witnesses said.
A man watching protests from his office window in Sanaa was also shot dead by a stray bullet, a security source said. Thousands of protesters have been demanding the end of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 32-year rule and at least 30 people have lost

LAHORE - Tanzeem-i-Islami (TI) on Saturday staged a protest against the drone attacks and Raymond Davis outside the Masid-i-Shuhada The Mall. The protest was attended by hundreds of TI workers. Speaking to protesters, Tanzeem-i-Islami Lahore Ameer Muhammad Jahangir said that after failing to secure Raymond's release disappointed Americans have started to kill innocent Pashtuns by restarting drone attacks. Political parties who actively protest against Raymond Davis's expected release,

RIYADH - Saudi Arabia launched a massive security operation on Friday in a menacing show of force to deter protesters from a planned a "Day of Rage" to press for democratic reform in the kingdom. Illegal demonstrations were supposed to start after Muslim Friday prayers at noon but as the mosques emptied there were no signs of rallies, with security men manning checkpoints in key locations across several cities. In the strategic Olaya commercial centre of the capital Riyadh, where

RABAT - Morocco's King Mohammed VI will address the nation late Wednesday, the government announced, delivering his first statement since protests last month demanding political reforms.
The address at 8:00 pm (2000 GMT) will be broadcast live on television and radio, the Royal House ministry said in a statement. It will be the first time the king has delivered an address to the nation since thousands of people demonstrated in several cities on February 20 demanding political

SANAA - Yemeni protests demanding an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 32-year rule spread to a tribal area considered his political stronghold on Tuesday, and military vehicles deployed in the capital. Around 10,000 protesters marched in the city of Dhamar, about 60 km (40 miles) south of Sanaa, residents said by telephone.
Dhamar is known for its ties to Saleh and is the hometown of Yemen's prime minister, interior minister and head judge. "Leave! leave!" the protesters

MANAMA - Pro-democracy activists protested at the US embassy in Bahrain on Monday, calling for Washington to press the authorities for democratic reform after weeks of demonstrations. Dozens of activists gathered at a fence set up in front of the embassy, chanting slogans in English against the Gulf state monarchy. Demonstrators also chanted in Arabic, saying "the people want to topple the regime!" The Gulf archipelago of some 1.2 million people is a strategic US ally and home to the

SANAA - The Yemeni opposition has called for an escalation in anti-regime demonstrations to force President Ali Abdullah Saleh to leave after the embattled leader refused to quit, a spokeman said on Sunday. "We have called upon the people to widen demonstrations, and escalate the peaceful struggle in all regions until he (Saleh) is left with one option, that is to leave," said Mohammed Sabri, a leading member of the Common Forum opposition alliance.
The veteran leader, who has

BEIJING - China's state media stepped up its criticism of calls for anti-government rallies on Sunday, saying stability was key amid concern that unrest sweeping the Middle East could spread to the Asian nation. The reports came a day after a similar comment piece was published for the first time in a state-run newspaper, amid renewed online calls for citizens to gather in dozens of cities to participate in "strolling" demonstrations Sunday.
"Firstly we must recognise that some

RIYADH - Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it would ban all protests and marches after minority Shi'ites staged small protests in the oil-producing eastern province. Security forces would use all measures to prevent any attempt to disrupt public order, the Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by state television. The ban follows a series of protests by Saudi Shi'ites in the kingdom's east in the past weeks mainly to demand the release of prisoners they say are long held without