Nato can resume supplying its troops in Afghanistan through a key route on Monday after protesters against US drone strikes lifted a blockade, an official said.
Supporters of former cricketer Imran Khan's Tehreek-e-Insaf on Sunday ended a two-day sit-in at a Peshawar road, which was called to compel the US to end a covert missile campaign against militants in tribal belt. "Peshawar ring road has been cleared and re-opened for vehicular traffic," senior local administration official, Muhammad Siraj Khan told AFP. Trucks will only be able to use the route from Monday morning because of security reasons, he added.
Imran Khan - who leads the Tehreek-e-Insaf party - earlier said his supporters would "block supplies for Nato in different parts of the country if drone attacks are not stopped within one month." "We will also stage sit-in in Islamabad if the government fails to stop these strikes," he told a crowd of some 5,000 people at the end of the two-day sit-in.
Supporters waved party flags and chanted slogans such as "stop the drone attacks, stop killing innocent people and down with the government," during the speech, an AFP reporter at the scene said. "We want a sovereign Pakistan," Khan said, adding that "the American people will hold even bigger demonstrations if they come to know that the innocent civilians are being killed in the drone attacks."
The party called the demonstration in protest at US missile attacks from unmanned aircraft in lawless tribal areas, which many feel infringe Pakistani sovereignty and which locals say sometimes kill civilians.
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