PESHAWAR, Oct 12: Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a central leader of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam has urged the armed forces to go back to barracks and defend the national frontiers rather than siding with the US in the destruction of Afghanistan.

Speaking to a gathering of his party workers here at the Soekarno Chowk in Khyber Bazaar on Friday, Mr Ahmed said that the armed forces were a national asset and it was not a personal fiefdom of any one man. The armed forces should concentrate on their slogan of “Faith, Contentment and Jihad”.

He lamented that the incumbent rulers had opened up the entire country for the US and its other terrorist allies. He warned the government that the people would not allow the US planes to land on Pakistani soil.”We will blow the US planes up parked on our bases,” he claimed.

Pakistani people would do the same with the US invaders as the Afghans had done to the Russian forces in Afghanistan, he said. Pakistan rulers had become lackeys of the US, but the people were with the Taliban, he maintained.

Maulana Attaur Rehman, Maulana Gul Naseeb, Maulana Sirjuddin and others also spoke on the occasion.

After setting effigies of the US president George Bush and UK prime minister Tony Blair on fire, the protesters dispersed peacefully.

Earlier, over 3,000 JUI(F) activists took out an anti-US, but peaceful procession from the Madni Mosque area which after parading on roads turned into a protest meeting at Soekarno Chowk in Khyber Bazaar.

Over a dozen small processions from various parts of the city converged at the Madni Mosque surrounded by busy markets on Namakmandi Road. The JUI leaders made fiery speeches and a student of a Madressah fuelled the situation by singing a parody of a national song.

According to a JUI spokesman, the authorities turned back several processions coming from the suburbs and heading towards the city centre. The administration didn’t allow Maulana Sufi Mohammad, Amir Tehreek Nifazi-i-Shariat-Muhammadi, in Malakand to go to Peshawar, he added.

At one point security personnel virtually outnumbered the protesters.

The district police backed by the anti-riot police force and Frontier Corps (FC) had closed all roads to traffic by placing barbed wire and armed personnel carriers (APCs) along the procession route.

The volunteers, who had registered for Jihad inside Afghanistan, carried black flags bearing a full moon in the middle, could also be seen in the procession.

Some teenagers, who were wearing white headbands, inscribed with “Al Qaeda”, were the centre of attraction for the media.