ISLAMABAD, Nov 28: Journalists, lawyers and human rights activists staged a demo here on Monday in protest against a reported plan of US President George W. Bush to bomb Al Jazeera television channel. Local and foreign journalists who had gathered at the Jinnah Avenue demanded an investigation into the reported plan.

The participants were carrying banners and photographs of journalists detained for independent reporting and demanded their immediate release.

An appeal to the UN secretary-general calling for investigation into the ‘attack plan’ was issued on the occasion.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists has appealed to Pakistani journalists to hold protest demonstrations on Dec 1 against the alleged US plan to attack Al Jazeera TV.

The PFUJ described the plan as the worst kind of attack on freedom of the press. It also criticized the British government for trying to suppress press freedom through the use of ‘Official Secrets Act’ and demanded an independent probe into what had transpired during a meeting between President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair on April 16, 2004.