PESHAWAR, Dec 7: The Pakistan-Afghan Defence Council took out a protest rally here on Friday to condemn the US airstrikes on Afghanistan and denounce the massacre of Pakistanis and Taliban fighters.

The rally was taken out from Madni Mosque, Namakmandi, which culminated at Khyber Bazaar. The protesters, carrying banners and placards, shouted anti-US slogans and demanded withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan.

Provincial Naib Amir of Jamaat-i-Islami Hakeem Abdul Waheed and other leaders of the PADC led the rally.

Later, speaking at the rally, Hakeem Abdul Waheed said that the PADC would continue its protest movement against the US attacks and atrocities in Afghanistan.

He said after the fall of the Taliban government the western powers were hatching conspiracies to create rifts among Afghans and divide them into various ethnic and linguistic groups.

He said western powers considered the Taliban movement main hurdle in their way and that was why the US and its allies targeted the Taliban government on the pretext of harbouring terrorism and providing protection to Osama bin Laden.

He vowed that the council would continue its protest movement against the US intervention in Afghanistan.

Terming Israel the world’s number one terrorist, Hakeem Abdul Waheed said that the America had given a free hand to the Jewish state and was bombing innocent Palestinians. He condemned the detention of Sheikh Mohammad Yaseen, the spiritual leader of Hamas, by the Palestinian authorities, saying that Israel could not stop the movement through atrocities.

Our Buner correspondent adds: The local leadership of Pak-Afghan Defence Council (PADC) held protest demonstrations across the district after Friday prayers.

The demonstrations were organized at Pachakalay-Pir Baba, Dewana Baba and Chinglai-Khudukhel where Haji Fazal Raziq, Habib Ur Rehman, Mohammad Hanif, Hazrat Mehamood, Afsar Khan, Murhamullah, Abdul Ghaffar and Mohammad Haleem the people.

The speakers bitterly criticized the US and its allies for staging a drama in Afghanistan to loot the precious resources of the region. They said the Bonn accord was doomed to fail as the area would soon see a civil war and the US and its allies would not keep themselves safe.

They condemned President Musharraf’s policy on Afghanistan and termed it a complete failure.