Jamaat-e-Islami activists stage demonstration against Nato

Scores of people on the call of Jamaat-e-Islami Chief Syed Munawar Hassan took out a rally on Friday to denounce unprovoked Nato attacks on checkposts in Mohmand Agency, which caused the loss of precious lives of brave Pakistani soldiers. Imams of the mosques in their Friday addresses condemned the blatant Nato aggression while leaders of the JI and other religious parties addressing protest rallies called for a resolute stand against Nato.
They also demanded immediate withdrawal of the Nato/US forces from Shamsi airbase. They appealed for a complete national unity for meeting the challenges ahead. According to JI spokesman, protest rallies besides Lahore were also held in the federal capital, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sargodha and various other cities and towns.
The JI chief in his Friday address at the Mansoora mosque said that the US had begun an undeclared war against Pakistan. Its drones had killed thousands of innocent citizens in tribal areas, he said adding that the latest Nato attack could be termed as the blatant aggression and terrorism. He said a few months back Mehran naval base in Karachi was attacked. Taliban could not be involved in that activity. However, he said, not much notice was taken of the incident.
The JI chief said that Pakistan had extended maximum facilities and support to the US and Nato. He said the people of the country had been demanding that the Nato supplies be stopped but nobody paid any heed to he issue. For the first time, the government had stopped these supplies but it was unclear whether the intelligence sharing had also been stopped.
The JI chief appreciated the government's decision to boycott the Bonn Conference. He said that in the first place, the US would not quit Afghanistan. Secondly, he said, the future of Afghanistan should not be Washington's headache as Afghans were in a better position to make decisions for their future.
The JI chief further said that the interest of the US and Pakistan were not the same. For instance, the US wanted the Pakistan army to fight against Taliban. He wondered what the 60 percent of the world forces (Nato) were doing in Afghanistan and why should Pak army join them. He said the Taliban had defeated the US and Nato but the US believed this was only due to Pakistan. He said that the US wanted the Pakistan army to accept the blame of this defeat.
The JI chief said the US had three main objectives in this region, to get oil and gas resources of Afghanistan, to destabilise Pakistan and take over its nuclear arsenal and to make India a regional policeman. He urged the government to stick to its decisions and this was possible only with complete national support. He said a parliament session had been convened but the decisions or resolutions of the previous parliaments should be implemented first.