PESHAWAR, Feb 19: A motorcade of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, going from here to Islamabad to attend a rally against the publication of sacrilegious cartoons by European newspapers, was stopped at Khairabad bridge on the NWFP-Punjab border on Sunday.

Punjab police stopped about 1,000 workers of the MMA at the bridge and did not allow them to go to Islamabad to participate in the rally.

Police, sources said, had blocked the road and the activists were not allowed to cross the bridge. The MMA workers staged a protest demonstration there and raised slogans against the government.

MNA Sabir Hussain Awan and JI’s provincial General-Secretary Mushtaq Ahmad Khan were leading the motorcade.