NATO supply routes: DPC’s long march reaches Chaman

Protesters say the route will be used to transport weapons to target Muslims.

QUETTA:

Thousands of activists of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC) staged a sit-in protest at Chaman near the Afghan border to decry the reopening of Nato supply routes by the Pakistan government.

“Today’s big gathering is a referendum against the decision of our rulers to restore Nato supplies, and disregard the people’s desires,” said DPC leaders.

The long march started from Quetta on Saturday afternoon and reached Chaman, a bordering town near the Durand Line on Sunday. The caravan was led by chairman DPC and chief of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Maulana Sami-ul-Haq. Other notable leaders included Maulana Abdul Qadir Loni, Abdul Matin Akhundzada, Maulana Ameer Hamza, and Maulana Sheikh Yaqoob.

The convoy made several stops, including at Yaro, Pishin, Jungle Piralizai and Qila Abdullah where the participants addressed the locals.

Strict measures had been taken to thwart security mishaps. During the march, some Nato vehicles were also halted from passing into the Quetta-Chaman highway. The procession was given a welcome upon reaching Chaman.

Addressing the gathering in Chaman, the DPC leaders said that the people had already decided that the resumption of Nato supplies was against their wishes. “The reopening of supply routes was the decision of rulers who bypassed the people,” they added.

“Rulers took this decision under immense pressure from their foreign masters by crushing the will of the people. But this long march is a referendum against their decision,” they said. They called for rescinding the decision forthwith.

DPC leaders said that thousands of innocent people, including women and children, had been martyred in drone attacks and that the US and its allies would have to answer for this aggression. “The people of Pakistan will never succumb before the aggression of the US and its agents,” they added.

They said that rulers have been blinded by the inflow of dollars and have totally neglected the interests of the country.

They said that the resumption of Nato supplies was the Muslim Ummah’s first step towards destruction, a step that had put the future of 180 million Pakistanis at stake.

They stressed that rulers must renounce their relations with the US, adding that if this was not done, the results could be disastrous.

The protestors expressed concern that the Nato supply route would turn into a passage-way for deadly weapons, arms and ammunitions which would be used against innocent Muslims in seminaries and mosques.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2012.