I wonder PTI and PML(N) are sleeping partners in this yet another double cross by army.
Such actions to get billions for army from Sam then organizing such ‘long-march’ is not going to help Pakistan. IK’s and N$ future will be doomed if they play such dirty politics. Sheeda Tulli visiting America after organizing such events, Sam has full right to kick him out from America and never allow such scumbag hypocrite in his country.
Difa-i-Pakistan begins ‘long-march’ to Islamabad | DAWN.COM
LAHORE: Prominent Pakistani hardliners who oppose their country’s anti-terror alliance with Washington led thousands of people in a protest Sunday against Pakistan’s decision to allow the US and other Nato countries to resume shipping troop supplies through the country to Afghanistan.
**The demonstration in the eastern city of Lahore was organized by the Difa-i-Pakistan Council (DPC), a group of right-wing politicians and religious leaders who have been the most vocal opponents of the supply line.
**
Thousands of people joined a convoy of buses, trucks and cars, many carrying the black and white striped flags of the Defence of Pakistan coalition, on the 275-kilometre journey from the eastern city of Lahore to Islamabad.
Pakistan closed the route in November in retaliation for American airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani troops. After months of negotiations, Islamabad finally agreed to reopen the route last week after the US apologized for the deaths.
“Some 25,000 people have joined us at the start of (the) long march and many more would join on the way, while we have 3,000 people with us who are performing security duties,” the organisers’ spokesman Yahya Mujahid told AFP.
Police, however, estimated up to 8,000 people were taking part.
“This is the beginning of our struggle. We want the USA to not only leave Afghanistan, but Pakistan also,” the DPC chairman Maulana Samiul Haq said at a rally before the convoy set off.
“This movement will continue till the government severs all contacts with United States and Nato” Haq said.
The DPC has attracted large turnouts at recent rallies across the country, which some see as a build up to the formation of a political party to contest the next general election, widely expected within the next year.
The leaders of Difa-i-Pakistan stood in the back of a truck at the head of the convoy.
They plan to link up with thousands more supporters on the city’s edge and ride to Islamabad, passing through Muridke and Gujranwala, in a so-called “long march” against the supply line.
The convoy is scheduled to reach Islamabad by Monday evening.
**Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, founder of the Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba blamed for the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, urged Pakistanis to join the protest.
**
“All the people who believe that (the) US should leave Afghanistan and Pakistan, they should come out of their homes and join us,” he said.
“Our aim is not just withdrawal of US from Afghanistan, but US stooges and slaves in Pakistan should also leave.”
Other prominent leaders included Hamid Gul, a retired Pakistani intelligence chief with a long history of militant support, Chief of Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Munawar Hassan and Chief of Awami Muslim League Shaikh Rasheed Ahmed.
**
Supporters showered them with rose petals as they passed. Many demonstrators rode on the tops of buses, waving party flags and shouting slogans against the US and Nato. ”One solution for America, jihad, jihad!” they shouted.
**
The crowd was dominated by members of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, widely believed to be a front group for Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is blamed for the attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008 that killed more than 160 people.
Jamaat-ud-Dawa is led by the group’s founder, Saeed.
”We want to show the rulers that people of Pakistan are against its decision, and we want to show the world that the rulers’ decision is not a reflection of the people’s will,” said Jamaat-ud-Dawa spokesman Yahya Mujahid.
**The US announced a $10 million bounty earlier this year for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Saeed, but he operates freely in the country.
**
Pakistan says it doesn’t have enough evidence to arrest Saeed, but many suspect the government is reluctant to move against him and other militant leaders because they have longstanding ties with the Pakistani military and intelligence service.
Although the army was outraged by the US attack on its troops, which Washington said was an accident, it was eager to repair the relationship to free up more than $1 billion in military aid that had been frozen for the past year.
I wonder is’t true or just ‘garam masala news’ from the media.
