NATO attack: ‘Supply ban not enough, stop intelligence sharing’

Jamaatud Dawa rally attended by district leaders of PML-N, JI.

GUJRANWALA: Speakers at a rally on Friday demanded that intelligence sharing with North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces in Afghanistan be stopped to avenge the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a recent attack in Mohmand Agency.

They said banning the movement of supplies through Pakistan was an insufficient response.

The protest titled Defence of Pakistan was organised by Jamaatud Dawa, a banned organisation. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Jamaat-i-Islami were also represented at the protest. Tariq Naeemullah and Maroof Khan from the PML-N and Iftikhar Chaudhry, the district amir; Rao Zafar and Zafar Iqbal from JI attended the protest.

JD leaders warned that they would launch a civil disobedience movement against the government if “it failed in protecting the sovereignty of the country in future as well”.

They rejected the US claim that the attack on the checkpost was not deliberate and that it was the result of a miscommunication. They said it was part of a conspiracy to dismantle the country’s nuclear weapons. “We have time and again warned against the US and India’s plots against Pakistan. The Nato and the Isaf are working on this agenda,” they said.

They said the country needed to review its foreign policy and that jihad (holy war) was the only way to tackle threats to sovereignty.

The protesters burnt flags of Nato and the US and pictures of Nato and Isaf officials.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 3^rd, 2011.