Over 100 Pakistani MPs protest US drone attacks

7 Dec PRESS TV

More than 100 Pakistani legislators have staged a protest against US assassination drone attacks in the country's northwestern tribal areas.

The national and provincial deputies gathered outside the parliament building in the capital, Islamabad, on Thursday, shouting slogans against the United States and the government of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. They accused Sharif's government of applying double standards to this issue and called for the blocking of supply routes through Pakistan for US-led troops in Afghanistan.

“Our rulers have double standards, they say one thing to the Americans and the complete opposite to the nation,” Imran Khan, leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, told the gathering. “These missile strikes violate international laws. We do not want a war with America but we are protesting against the cruel policies of America,” said Khan, whose party rules the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Rallies against the drone attacks began in the region's main city of Peshawar on November 24.

Anti-US sentiments in northwestern Pakistan have prompted the US military to suspend shipments of equipment out of Afghanistan through the key Torkham border crossing. Over the past several years, Washington has been launching drone attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen, saying the airstrikes target Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants in those countries.

Yet official figures show that most of the victims were civilians. Islamabad has officially demanded Washington to end the deadly air raids, saying the attacks violate its sovereignty.

The US drone strikes have surged under President Barack Obama despite Islamabad's protests and the UN's condemnation of the CIA-run operations as a violation of international law.

The United Nations and several human rights organizations have identified the US as the world's number one user of “targeted killings.