Islamabad sees protest against NATO supply routes

Islamabad sees protest against NATO supply routes

The capital of Pakistan, Islamabad, saw a protest take place on Monday, 9 July, 2012 against the decision of the government ruled by the Pakistan People’s Party to re-open the supply routes for NATO forces situated in Afghanistan.

The protest was carried out mainly by the religious opposition parties of the country along with the supporters of these parties. The city of Islamabad saw a gathering of thousands of people who were protesting the decision of the government.

In order to control the law and order situation in the city, a huge amount of police was deployed at key junctions and many routes and been barricaded by road blocks. It was also seen that most of the shops as well as stores closed as early as 4:00 p.m.
 

According to the Defence of Pakistan Council (DPC), the group consisting of religious and political parties in the country that are responsible for the protest, has stated their aim to be the mobilization of public opinion concerning the re-opening of the
supply routes to NATO.

The NATO supply routes closed in the country after NATO forces carried out air strikes on two of the border posts in Pakistan. The strikes had been carried out from the Afghan side of the border. The air strikes had gone on for a period of two hours despite
the fact that the military of Pakistan had contacted their counter parts in NATO in an attempt to make the strikes stop. However, the strikes had not stopped and had resulted in the death of 24 Pakistani soldiers.

The military of Pakistan had termed the act as unprovoked aggression and had demanded an apology in return from NATO as well as the US. However, an apology had not come from the US until recently. US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton had apologised for the
act immediately after which Pakistan had announced to reopen the NATO supply routes.

Previously, the supplies to the NATO forces were either being dropped from the air or through Russia and other northern countries. However, this caused a significant increase in the cost of the US.    

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=28519

Posted by Rabiya Maqbool on Jul 10 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry