RAWALPINDI, Nov 6: The Alliance for Peace and Justice held a peace rally on Tuesday and demanded the US and its allies to put an end to the on-going war against Afghanistan.

The rally, comprising activists of trade unions, peasants, trade organizations and other sections of the society, started from the Rawalpindi Press Club around 3pm. The participants, chanting slogans against extremism and violence, marched upto the Committee Chowk, where after a brief spell of speeches they returned to the Press Club.

The demonstrators were also carrying placards and banners inscribed with slogans for prevalence of peace. Some of the slogans read: “War is not an answer to violence”, “Yes to peace; no to terrorism”, “Justice, not revenge”, “We condemn bigotry and revenge in all aspects”, “Justice, yes; retaliation no”, “Reason not passion”, “Unite against terrorism”.

The groups of working and educated women raised slogans against fundamentalism and extremism. They also denounced Taliban-style governance, specially with regard to restricting women from receiving education and earning a living.

At the Committee Chowk, the demonstrators adopted one minute’s silence to mourn the death of 16 Christians at a Bahawalpur church.

Among others, the procession was also attended by eminent lawyer and National Workers Party president, Abid Hassan Manto; NWP central committee member as well as prominent peace and human rights activist from Lahore, Begum Tahira Mazhar Khan; and Prof (Dr) Nayyar of the Quaid-i-Azam University.

Leaders of various women and human rights organizations as well as students from various cities of the Punjab and NWFP participated in the rally.

One of the organizers of the rally, Irfan Siddiqui, said the rally proved that a majority of the people were against violence, terrorism and war. It also showed that masses were keen for prevalence of peace, he added.

In a statement, the participants urged the United Nations to send peace mission to Afghanistan to end the conflict. They said US-led military response to the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington had plunged the world into a cycle of violence with no definite end in sight.

The statement said the US response reflected short- sightedness and lack of vision. The heavy loss of life and property in the war-ravaged country due to the strikes cannot be termed as inadvertent “collateral damage”.

It said the US continued to act unilaterally and without any regard for civilian populations, and that it had completely failed in achieving any of the stated objectives of the military campaign. The demonstrators said the humanitarian crisis should be dealt with proper commitment by the international community and all refugees be returned and rehabilitated. The people of Pakistan and Afghanistan want peace and justice, and it is high time the US realized that violence cannot be countered with violence, they stressed.

It was also observed that a political solution to the problem should be sought with full participation of the Afghan people.

The participants demanded of the government to clamp down on extremist forces in the country immediately. They also called for restoring democracy, besides all civil and political rights.