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PTI activists search trucks for Nato supplies
[Dawn] Club-wielding  ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the brightest knife in the national drawer... 's political party forcibly searched trucks for NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... supplies in northwest Pakistain on Sunday in protest at deadly US drone strikes. Around 100 workers from the former cricket star's Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) party set up checkpoints in the northwestern city of 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. on a main road leading to Afghanistan. They stopped trucks and hauled drivers from their cabs to check their paperwork, following a call by Khan at a rally on Saturday to block supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan in protest at the drone attacks. The activists, carrying the PTI's green and red flag, broke open truck containers to check their contents, an AFP news hound at the scene said. The PTI heads the government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... province, of which Peshawar is the capital. But authority for the highways lies with the federal government, which has so far made no move to block NATO supplies. Muhammad Faisal, a senior police official, said the PTI activists' actions were illegal but he was powerless to act. "The protesters are doing unlawful acts by checking documents and screening goods, they don't have authority," he told AFP. "But we can't take action against them because we have no instructions from the government. If the government orders us, we will stop this illegal activity." PTI activist Asghar Khalil told AFP they were heeding their leader's call to action and would not stop until Washington promised to end drone strikes. Khan has long opposed the US campaign of drone attacks targeting Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces of Evil in Pakistain's tribal areas. He has intensified his rhetoric since a US drone strike killed Pak Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud on November 1. Khan says that attack was a deliberate attempt by Washington to sabotage efforts towards peace talks with the krazed killers, who have killed thousands in a six-year campaign of violence. "They are doing unlawful acts. They broke the sealing of my container and forcibly examined the goods," Faiz Muhammad Khan, a truck driver transporting sanitary items to Afghanistan, told AFP. "If they want to block supplies for NATO forces, they should stop it 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... or at the border." Later in the day, one of Khan's allies, the right wing 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 independentbranch 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... party, led thousands in a protest against drone attacks and the NATO supply line in the southern port city of Karachi, where the shipments originate. Pakistain is a key transit route for the US-led mission in landlocked Afghanistan, particularly as NATO forces prepare to withdraw by the end of next year. NATO supplies were suspended on Saturday because of a major PTI rally, which was held on the route used by the trucks. The drone strikes are deeply unpopular in Pakistain. Islamabad publicly condemns them as counter-productive and a violation of illusory sovereignty, although previous governments have given their tacit support to them. The US regards the strikes as a highly effective tool in the fight against militancy. Posted by: Fred 2013-11-25 |
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