Thaindian News

Peshawar, April 24(ANI): Pakistan has suspended NATO supply shipments to Afghanistan as thousands of protesters began a sit-in on the supply route against the US drone campaign in the country’s militant-infested tribal areas.

Along with his party workers and supporters, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan staged a sit-in at the Peshawar ring road on Saturday evening, aiming to block the land route used by NATO supply trucks in retaliation against deadly US drone attacks in the tribal areas.

Imran and other protesters spent the night on road, and the sit-in continued on Sunday morning, Geo News reports.

“We will continue our campaign until America stops killing our innocent people,” Global General quoted Imran, as telling around 3,000 protesters on the outskirts of Peshawar, around 35 miles (57 kilometres) from the Afghan border.

“It is our start against American slavery. The people have risen up. They will neither let the corrupt leaders nor their American bosses stay in this country,” he added.

Imran also offered his services to act as a mediator for any possible peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban.

“I am ready to broker,” he said, arguing that if America were ready to do that in Afghanistan, why would Pakistan not do it here.

Police officer Khurshid Khan said that NATO supplies had been stopped until Monday morning because of the protest.

Much of the non-lethal supplies for foreign troops in landlocked Afghanistan come through Pakistan after arriving at the port in Karachi.

Although the stoppage is temporary, the event highlights the vulnerability of the supply route running through Pakistan at a time of tensions between Washington and Islamabad.

The NATO alliance has been opening new routes into Afghanistan from the north in recent years to try to reduce its dependency on the Pakistan route, which gives Islamabad leverage when negotiating with the West. (ANI)