Syrian crisis: AWP activists condemn impending US military strike

Blame world power for patronising militant outfits.

Scores of activists of a left wing political party, student and trade union organisations and ordinary people on Thursday, protested against the impending American strike on Syria.

The participants of the rally, organised by Awami Workers Party (AWP) as part of its countrywide protest rallies, condemned the Pakistani government’s dual role of being against the aggression while at the same time pandering to the dictates of the same powers waging the war.

AWP Punjab secretary general, Aasim Sajjad said that it has become a fashion for the populist right wing political organizations to depict themselves as anti-imperialists but in reality these parties have always enjoyed a consensual relationship with them.

He pointed out that the Americans and NATO is patronising al-Qaeda and jihadi outfits in Syria to destabilise the Assad regime, which proves that they are committed only to their narrow geo-strategic interests and will ally with whoever serves their interests.

In her address to the protesters, general secretary of the National Students Federation (NSF),
Alia Amirali said that the Syrian people have every right to oppose, and even depose, the Assad dictatorship but bombing Syria will only heighten people’s suffering and escalate the civil war and strengthen anti-people forces on both the government and rebel sides of the conflict.

According to AWP Rawalpindi convener Shehak Sattar like the invasion of Iraq, yet another lie has been concocted by the American establishment and the corporate media to justify the bombing of Syria.

Others who spoke on the occasion included AWP Islamabad convener Nazish Zahoor, Railway Workers Union leader Mirza Rizwan Beg, AWP women wing leader Farzana Bari and Agha Abdul Sattar.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2013.