Increasing strength: School children join sit-in against NATO supply

‘People from Waziristan, Bajaur, Khyber have started their journey towards the protest camps’.

PESHAWAR: Students from public and private schools joined the sit-in with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan (AJIP) to block Nato supplies.

“We received an application from some students hailing from Waziristan Agency that they want to participate in the sit-in. These children had to migrate due to unprecedented drone attacks in their area,” said Malik Shahzada, Managing Director of Abdul Qadeer Khan School.

Shahzada told The Express Tribune that friends of these students also accompanied them to express solidarity with the people of Waziristan. The sit-in continued into its sixth consecutive day at Hayatabad Toll Plaza while students from other branches of the school protested in Swabi and Charsadda.

On November 23, PTI Chairman Imran Khan addressed a rally in the city and maintained that until US drone strikes stop, the Nato supply route through Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) will remain blocked.

“This is not a war against the US, rather, our resentment is against killing of innocent people in drone attacks which is a violation of international laws as well as aggression against sovereignty,” said PTI MPA Ishtiaq Urmar.

According to PTI Peshawar General Secretary Younas Zaheer, people from Waziristan, Bajaur, Khyber and Mohmand agencies had started their journey towards the protest camps and will be joining the sit-in soon.

JI also asked the carriage contractors to refuse to pick up containers from Karachi so supplies to troops in Afghanistan are completely blocked.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2013.