Thousands protest US drone attacks

24 Jan, 2011

More than 10,000 activists of Jamaat-i-Islami held an anti-US protest in Peshawar on Sunday calling for an immediate stop to American drone attacks in tribal areas, police said. The activists of Jamaat-i-Islami blocked a main road and staged a six-hour sit-in in front of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial parliament.
The demonstrators chanted anti-US slogans and carried banners and placards reading "Death for America", "Stop drone attacks in Pakistan" and "No to American interference in Pakistan".
One banner read: "Listen Obama, do not kill innocent Muslims". "Why is the government silent on US drone attacks? These attacks are against Pakistan's interests," the JI chief Syed Munawar Hasan told the gathering.
A police officer at the scene put the number of protesters at over 10,000, as did an intelligence official. The protest coincided with two US drone strikes targeting vehicles in North Waziristan which killed at least seven militants.

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