PESHAWAR, July 8: Jamaat-i-Islami has announced to organise a protest rally in the border town of Torkham on July 17 against reopening of routes for supplies to US-led Nato forces in Afghanistan.

Speaking at a press conference here at Al Markaz-i-Islami on Sunday, JI provincial amir Prof. Mohammad Ibrahim said that Jamaat chief Syed Munawar Hassan, former chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad, central secretary general Liaquat Baloch and other leaders would lead the rally from Bagh-i-Naran, Peshawar, to Torkham.

He said that the party workers would organise a sit-in in Hayatabad Township on July 16 and spend the night on the main road being used as main route for transportation of goods to the Nato forces.

Supplies for Nato forces via Peshawar are likely to start from Monday, as provincial and district governments had finalised security plan for protection of trucks. Authorities in Khyber Agency would deploy Frontier Corps and Khasadar personnel to secure the main highway.

For the first time a political party will hold a protest demonstration on the border since the government extended Political Parties Order 2002 to Fata last year.

Prof. Ibrahim said that the JI rally would leave Peshawar at 10am on July 17 and the participants would stage a protest demonstration against the resumption of Nato supplies and Pakistan government’s cooperation with the US. “Over 20,000 JI workers would march from Peshawar to Torkham to register their protest against allowing the US-led Nato to use Pakistani territory for transportation of weapons and other goods,” the JI provincial amir said.

He said that that his party was a member of Difa-i-Pakistan Council, but the rally was being organised under the JI’s banner. —Bureau Report