Text 17320, 67 rader
Skriven 2006-01-16 10:38:48 av BOB SAKOWSKI (1:123/140)
Ärende: Winning hearts & minds
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Protests condemn Bajaur airstrikes

* Protesters urge government to halt all military operations in the country
* Demand that govt stop supporting the US

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Protestors took to the streets in a nationwide demonstration on
Sunday to condemn the US air strikes that officials said targeted Al Qaeda
second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri, but instead killed 18 villagers in the
Bajaur Agency near the Afghan border.

Demonstrators rallied in Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar and several
other parts of the country to vent their anger against the United States
and President Pervez Musharraf.

In Karachi, around 5,000 protestors took to the streets, chanting “Do not
kill innocent civilians in tribal areasö and “Any friend of America is a
traitorö, AP reported. Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) leader Ghafoor Haidri
urged the government to “stop using Pakistani soldiers to kill Pakistanis
in tribal areasö.

Addressing a protest rally, he said that former US president George Bush
“should not be allowed to visit Pakistan until the US government issues an
apology for the killingsö, AP reported. Bush is set to visit Pakistan over
the weekend as a special envoy of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the
relief operations for the victims of the October 8 earthquake.

In Islamabad, the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement
(MQM) staged a joint protest in front of the Rawalpindi Press Club’s camp
office. JI Member of the National Assembly (MNA) Mian Muhammad Aslam and
MQM MNA Iqbal Muhammad Ali led the protest demonstration, and demanded that
the government take practical steps against the killings instead of verbal
protests with the US government. They called upon the government to
immediately stop the military operation in Balochistan, calling it “a
threat to the federationö.

Ali said that his party would continue to oppose the government’s “wrong
policiesö. “The military operation in Balochistan and the Bajaur incident
can be harmful for the future of the country. The MQM participated in this
protest on the directions of party chief Altaf Hussain,ö he said.

The leaders said that Muslims the world over are being victimised in the
name of the war against terror and a few Muslim countries have “joined
hands with anti-Islamic elementsö. They demanded an immediate halt to
military operations in all parts of the country.

Mian Aslam said that the US military was launching attacks inside Pakistan
because of the government’s “flawed policiesö. “NATO (North Atlantic Treaty
Organisation) forces have also entered the quake-affected areas in the
guise of relief workers without the government’s permission, and are now
using delaying tactics to stay longer in these areas,ö he said. He demanded
President Musharraf’s immediate resignation, saying that his policies were
harmful to the country.

In Lahore, MMA activists staged a demonstration outside the Lahore Press Club
to condemn the air strike. The protestors urged the government not to “allow
its foreign masters to play with innocent livesö...
[snip]

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/print.asp?page=2006\01\16\story_16-1-2006_pg1_1

Incompetent bastards.


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