PESHAWAR, Dec 2: Workers of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and its allied parties continued protests in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa against the US drone attacks for the 10th consecutive day on Monday.
A news release issued by the PTI media cell here said protesters sent back three Nato trucks from Dera Ismail Khan and one from Peshawar vowing complete blockade would continue until the US drone strikes in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ended.
Activities of the Jamaat Islami and the Awami Jamhoori Ittehad also took part in the protests at five points in four districts of the province.
The PTI and its allied parties in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had begun the anti-drone attack protests on Nov 23 and have not since been allowing trucks carrying supplies for Nato forces to go to Afghanistan via Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Police also registered cases against two protesters, including Kashif Azam of Jamaat-i-Islami and Tahir Raees, at the complaints of drivers of Afghanistan-bound trucks carrying commercial goods.
However, Younas Zaheer Mohmand, PTI’s district general secretary in Peshawar, said drivers hadn’t registered any complaints against protesters and therefore, police should not harass the PTI and JI workers otherwise they would protest against police.
He said protesters couldn’t be deterred by implicating them in false cases and that strict action would be taken against police if they continued registering such cases.
Mr Younas said the anti-drone protest would continue until their objectives were achieved and that the people of the province were extremely upset over the violation of their rights by the recent US drone attack.
On the occasion, the protesters said they would actively take part in the protest planned by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government in front of Parliament in Islamabad to show anger at the illegal and unwarranted attacks by the US in Fata and their province.According to them, the PTI and its allies were engaged in a war against the US to restore the respect of the people of tribal areas and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The protesters said the people of Fata and their province had sleepless nights due to fear of drone attacks and therefore, such attacks should come to an end without delay.
They said the issue of unlawful drone attacks had attained international significance and the people were taking to the streets to protest against such strikes in the UK and the US, too. The protesters said the demonstrations would continue and would achieve targets.
They appreciated the provincial government for presentation of memorandum to the US consulate in Peshawar against drone strikes and its scheduled activities in this respect.
