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JI, JuD protest against US drone strikes in Pakistan
[Pak Daily Times] Activists from right-wing religious parties led protests in the country Friday to denounce a US drone strike that killed the leader of the Pak Taliban, after the movement named a notorious hardliner as his successor.

Pakistain last week reacted angrily to the drone attack that killed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) chief Hakimullah Mehsud in the North Wazoo Agency. The government said it destroyed efforts to begin talks to end the TTP's bloody six-year insurgency that has left thousands of soldiers, police and civilians dead. The interior minister accused Washington of sabotaging peace efforts, and the Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf
...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations....
 (PTI) chief Imran Khan
... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the brightest knife in the national drawer...
 called for a blockade of NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
 convoys to Afghanistan.

Around 1,200 supporters of the Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
 (JI) staged a protest sit-in on Friday, blocking a NATO supply route in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
, police and an AFP news hound said. Mohammad Ismail, a police brass hat in Peshawar said the road would reopen soon. "It is temporary due to the protest rally, supplies will re-open on Saturday," Ismail told AFP. Pakistain is a key transit route for the US-led mission in landlocked Afghanistan, particularly as NATO forces withdraw by the end of next year. Many of the trucks now are actually removing NATO equipment after 12 years of war.

"Block NATO supply, stop drone attack," read one banner at the rally. Protesters carrying placards and party flags were shouting anti-US slogans, an AFP news hound said. In Lahore, more than 200 activists of Jamaat-ud-Dawa
...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba...
 (JuD) gathered outside the press club and rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud against the US. JuD also held a small rally in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
. "America does not want a peaceful Pakistain, it is against peace talks, government should shoot down US drones," Shabeer Ahmad Khan, a JI leader told the gathering in Peshawar.

Imran has set a November 20 deadline for the halting of drone strikes and threatened to block NATO convoys in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
, where PTI leads the coalition government. But it is not clear how he would carry out such a blockade as authority over highways lies with the federal government. Islamabad condemns drone strikes as a violation of illusory sovereignty, and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
 urged President Barack Obama
I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go...
to end them during White House talks last week.

But analysts say Nawaz's ability to issue demands to Washington are constrained by the fact the US last month agreed to release around $1.6 billion in aid. In addition, Pakistain has just embarked on a new $6.7 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan package with support from Washington. Mehsud's death last Friday was the third major blow struck against the TTP by the US this year, following the killing of number two Waliur Rehman in a drone strike in May and the capture of another senior lieutenant in Afghanistan last month. On Thursday, the TTP named its new leader as hardline holy man Mullah Fazlullah
...son-in-law of holy man Sufi Mohammad. Known as Mullah FM, Fazlullah had the habit of grabbing his FM mike when the mood struck him and bellowing forth sermons. Sufi suckered the Pak govt into imposing Shariah on the Swat Valley and then stepped aside whilst Fazlullah and his Talibs imposed a reign of terror on the populace like they hadn't seen before, at least not for a thousand years or so. For some reason the Pak intel services were never able to locate his transmitter, much less bomb it. After ruling the place like a conquered province for a year or so, Fazlullah's Talibs began gobbling up more territory as they pushed toward Islamabad, at which point as a matter of self-preservation the Mighty Pak Army threw them out and chased them into Afghanistan...
, known for leading the Taliban's bloody two-year rule in Swat
...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...
Valley.
Posted by: Fred 2013-11-09
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=379319