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| Protesters march on a street during a demonstration in Islamabad on December 8, 2011 against the cross-border Nato air strike on Pakistani troops. |
ISLAMABAD: Around 800 people poured onto the streets in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Thursday to condemn Nato and the United States over the recent killing of 24 soldiers along the Afghan border.
Lawyers, union members, traders and journalists marched up to the heavily guarded diplomatic enclave to deliver a petition to the US embassy. Only a delegation was allowed to proceed inside to the US embassy.
“It is time to say ‘no more instead of do more’, No to American terrorism, long live Pakistan, long live the Pakistan army, go Americans go, death to the US, Americans are dogs, Nato is a dog,” shouted the protesters.
Holding up Pakistani flags, the crowd marched from the capital’s main commercial Blue Area and burnt a dummy marked Nato outside parliament.
Police official Mohammad Yousaf Malik said 800 people attended the demonstration and that up to 500 policemen deployed around the diplomatic enclave to prevent any untoward incident.
The lethal November 26 NATO air strikes have brought the fragile Pakistani-US alliance to a fresh low.
Pakistan has sealed its Afghan border to Nato supply convoys, boycotted this week’s Bonn conference on the future of Afghanistan and ordered US personnel to vacate an air base reportedly used by CIA drones.
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