QUETTA, June 1: Hundreds of students, political workers and other people staged a protest demonstration in Kharan on Sunday against the presence of United States forces at Shamsi Airport, some 80km north of the town.

The protesters, carrying placards and banners inscribed with slogans against the US government, marched on various roads.

They chanted slogans against US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

They demanded that the airport should be taken back from the US forces.

“The US should vacate the Shamsi Airport and shift its forces, aircraft and other equipment to the airbases in Afghanistan,” a student leader, Azam Baloch, said.

He said the US wanted to retain the airport to use it against Iran, as it had launched a campaign accusing the country of giving shelter to Al Qaeda members.

He said that People of Balochistan would not allow any country to use their soil against Iran.

Other speakers said that after the occupation of Afghanistan there was no justification for the US forces’ presence at the airport.

They said the people of Shamsi township had become jobless because the Arab rulers were not coming there for hunting after the Afghan war.