Post date: Nov 23, 2013 6:53:10 PM
Angered by United States drone strikes, thousands of protesters led by Pakistani cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan block an important NATO supply route in Peshawar.
PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN (NOVEMBER 23, 2013) (REUTERS) - Thousands of supporters led by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan staged a protest rally on Saturday (November 23) against United States drone strikes, threatening to block NATO supply routes into Afghanistan.
Khan and leaders of allied political parties and renowned religious scholars addressed a ten thousand-strong crowd in the northwestern city of Peshawar, the capital of the volatile Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (KPK) bordering Afghanistan.Khan, whose Tehreek-e-Insaf party is now in charge of the KPK, has threatened to cut NATO supply lines through his region from November 23 if U.S. drone strikes do not end.
"God willing, we will block the route. We will start from here and will go across Pakistan. We will awake Pakistanis. God willing, we will put pressure on America that our protests will continue till you don't stop drone strikes," Khan told supporters at the rally.
"Because we have our government in the provinces, we can't go to Security Council, we can not bring down the drones, but we can stop NATO supply, and we will stop it," he added.
Activists burned US flags as a mark of protest. Later, the protesters dispersed peacefully.
Khan's party spokesman said they will start blocking the NATO supply route from November 24 by staging sit-in protests at different locations on the route.
Blocking NATO trucks at KPK border checkpoints could disrupt the operations of U.S.-led forces inAfghanistan but any decision to close supply routes through Pakistan would have to come from the central government in Islamabad.
Pakistan is the main route supplying U.S. troops in landlocked Afghanistan with everything from food and drinking water to fuel. Any closure could be a serious disruption as U.S. and other Western forces prepare to withdraw most of their troops from Afghanistan by the end of next year.
However, apart from the route in KPK province, NATO also uses another route from the Chaman border in the province of Baluchistan into Afghanistan.
NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen has urged Pakistan to keep open supply lines to NATO forces in Afghanistan despite anger over a U.S. drone strike that killed the Pakistani Taliban leader,Hakimullah Mehsud.
Pakistan and the United States agreed in July 2012 to reopen land routes to Afghanistan, ending a seven-month crisis that damaged ties between the two countries. Without the Pakistani route, NATO forces would be forced to use more expensive methods, such as airlifts, to bring supplies in.