[Dawn] Thousands of religious forces of Evil opposed to the country's anti-terror alliance with Washington converged on Islamabad on Monday after a "long march" to protest over the reopening of NATO...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
supply routes to Afghanistan.
Around 15,000 protestors gathered outside the parliament to chant anti-US slogans and wave the banners of the Difa-e-Pakistain Council (DPC), a coalition of right wing and hardline religious groups which organised the protest march from the eastern city of Lahore.
Islamabad agreed to reopen overland routes to NATO convoys last week after a seven-month blockade sparked by a botched US air raid on a border post that killed 24 Pak soldiers.
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.
Coalition chairman Maulana Samiul Haq
...leader of his own faction of the JUI. Known as
Mullah Sandwichfor his habit of having two young boys at a time...
told a rally on Sunday before the convoy of buses, trucks and cars left Lahore on the 275-kilometre (170-mile) journey to the capital that the movement would continue until Islamabad severed all ties with the US and NATO.
Outside parliament on Monday evening the crowd rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud including "Death to the USA" and one speaker called for the arrest of the CIA chief in Pakistain.