KANDAHAR, July 10: Nearly 1,000 people gathered on Thursday at the main mosque in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar to protest alleged incursions by Pakistani troops into Afghan territory.

Demonstrators including tribal and religious leaders and provincial officials packed into the Kharqa mosque for a three-hour meeting.

The vice governor, city mayor and brother of Afghan president Hamid Karzai, Hamad Wali Karzai, were among the well-known speakers at the assembly, each of whom rose to denounce “the Pakistani interference in Afghanistan and the invasion by the Pakistani army into Afghan territory.”

“We will respond with the same tactics used by Pakistan,” warned the demonstrators, who sought to spur the international community, especially the United States and the coalition forces, “to guarantee respect of the border.”

The gathering took place without incident.

Security around the Pakistani consulate in Kandahar was tightened on Thursday in response to the demonstration as well as an attack on Tuesday on the embassy in the capital, Kabul, that left the mission shuttered.—AFP