Imran threatens to block NATO supply routes
Peshawar—Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman, Imran Khan said on Sunday that if drone strikes inside Pakistan did not stop within 30 days, protesters will block all NATO supply routes across Pakistan.
Khan also warned that protesters would march to Islamabad to force the government to take a stand on the issue if drone strikes continue.
The PTI Chairman made the announcement during day two of his party’s sit-in against drone strikes in Peshawar. Thousands of people arrived in the Hayatabad locality of Peshawar for the protest.
The Pak-Afghan road which is the main supply route for the NATO troops in neighbouring Afghanistan was totally blocked and no supplies could be delivered on Sunday.
Imran Khan told thousands of people on the first day of protest in Peshawar, capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, that more protest rallies would be planned in the coming days unless the CIA stops drone strikes.
“The government has failed to stop the U.S. strikes which kill innocent people including women and children,” said Imran Khan at the gathering.
Anger runs high in Pakistan against the U.S. drone strikes in the Waziristan tribal areas which CIA considers as the base for Al-Qaida and Afghan Taliban militants for planning attacks across the border into Afghanistan.
Despite the public resentment and Pakistan’s protest, the U.S. administration has rejected any possibility to halt the strikes.
The protest came just a day after two U.S. drone aircraft fired missiles into North Wa-ziristan tribal region, which reportedly killed 25 people including women and children.
Currently nearly 70 percent of the NATO supplies in Afghanistan are transported through Pakistan, the most risky but shorter supply route. Suspected militants regularly attack NATO trucks in Pakistan, which has forced the U.S. to sign agreements with Russia for an alternate supply route.
According to the reports, the supply trucks and oil tankers for the estimated 150,000 NATO troops were stopped in Eastern Punjab province from heading to the border region due to the protest.
It is reported that some 300 trucks and oil tankers are daily passing through Pakistan’s Khyber Pass. A similar number also enter Afghanistan through Chaman border in the country’s southwestern province of Balochistan province.
Analysts opine that it is the operation of US drone attack from the soil of Pakistan which has seriously aggravated the challenge of terrorism to Pakistan.
Majority of Pakistanis believe that war on terror has practically been an American war in which the Pakistani government went beyond limits of subservience to the US.
The main supply route for Nato troops in Afghanistan through the Khyber Pass was temporarily closed on Sunday after thousands of people blocked a key highway to protest against US drone strikes, officials said.
The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul, however, said the two-day blockade would have no impact on the alliance’s operations in Afghanistan.
“Coordination with Pakistani government officials has been conducted and we understand the government will maintain security,” an ISAF spokesman said.
The routes through Pakistan cater for 40 per cent of supplies for Nato forces in Afghanistan, according to the United States Transportation Command.
40 per cent of supplies come through Afghanistan’s neighbours in the North and 20 per cent by air.
The call for blocking the supply line came from Tehrik-e-Insaaf leader Imran Khan after US officials rejected Pakistan’s demand for sharp cuts in drone strikes in its tribal regions where Al-Qaida and Taliban militants are based.
Activists from Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI), and some other parties staged a sit-in on the highway leading to Afghanistan through the Pashtun tribal region of Khyber.
“It is meant to send a message outside that we oppose drone strikes. We will never accept them,” Asad Qaiser, PTI president in the North-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said.
The supply to Afghanistan through Khyber region had been suspended since the protest started on Saturday, a senior provincial government official, Siraj Ahmed, said.
The Chaman border crossing in the southwest has remained open to traffic. The attacks by US pilotless aircraft are a source of concern for the Pakistani government, which says civilian casualties stoke public anger and bolster support for militancy.
But the protests have irked Pakistani truckers involved in the lucrative business of transporting supplies to the foreign troops in Afghanistan.
“They are politicians. They keep doing such dramas. But we cannot take risk so it is better to keep our trucks off the road for a few days,” Mohammad Shakir Afridi, the president of Khyber Transport Association, said.
“We are fed up with this business,” he added. “Every second day either trucks are attacked or the supply to Afghanistan is suspended. We say if you (the government) do not want it, cut it off permanently or provide us proper security.”
Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) has given a five point demand to the government to bring an end to the murderous drone attacks and protect the life and liberty of its citizens, otherwise it must tender resignation.
The five point “Peshawar Declaration” adopted at the conclusion of two day sit-in (Dharna) in Peshawar on Sunday demanded of the government to immediately implement the joint resolution of Parliament on the war on terror, end the Hippocratic double faced policy and bring before the Parliament all past and present agreements/understandings with the US government on the war on terror.
The PTI demanded of the Supreme Court to urgently hear the drone attacks petition filed by it and hold a judicial inquiry under the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to ascertain the legitimacy of the drone attacks under Pakistani constitution and also determine the scale of human loss and establish scope of compensatin to the victims and their families.
It also called for immediate access of media and human rights organizations to FATA to independently assess the human and material losses suffered by the people due to the drone attacks.
The Peshawar Declaration said that in case drone attacks continue and these demands are not accepted, then the Government which has failed to protect the life and liberty of its citizens must resign.
The PTI declared that with the support of the people, it would block all supply routes of NATO trucks to Afghanistan, if the drone attacks were not stopped.
The Party congratulated the people of Pakistan for their massive participation in the Dharna which it said is a reflection of the nation’s consensus that demands an end to the drone attacks resulting in loss of innocent lives characterized by the UN as extra judicial killings.
Senior PML-N leader Javed Hashmi and PML-Q leader Marvi Memon, both members of the National Assembly reached Peshawar and participated in the Dharna staged by Tehrik-i-Insaaf against drone attacks.
They were warmly received by Imran Khan on the stage and described Javed Hashmi as a brave man.
Imran Khan also introduced Marvi Memon to the crowd describing her as a brave women saying that she had met an accident while returning from Lahore and fractured her leg. Despite fracture she came to Peshawar to attend the Dharna.
At this thousands of people, present on the occasion raised slogans in favour of Javed Hashmi and Marvi Memon.
Meanwhile, popularity of Imran Khan has witnessed massive increase.
A survey on Face Book says that more than two lakh thirty one thousand Pakistanis in their comments said they want to see Imran Khan as next Prime Minister of Pakistan.
The survey was organized by Insaaf Students Federation and Women Wing of Tehrik-i-Insaaf.
Imran threatens to block NATO supply routes
Imran should know, this kind of acts will only cause the US to expand Northern Distribution Network. Thus in a couple months there will be no supply route to block.
