ISLAMABAD, Oct 30: The British government cancelled a trip by Prince Charles to Peshawar scheduled for Tuesday amid fears of unrest following the air strike in Bajaur. The cancellation came at the end of the first full day of the five-day tour by Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, and follow fears in the British media about their security in Pakistan.

“The Prince’s visit to Peshawar is cancelled on the advice of the Pakistan government.

“A new programme is to be advised,” high commission spokesman Aidan Liddle said.

Charles and Camilla had been due to visit a government-approved madressah while in Peshawar as part of his focus on ‘inter-faith harmony’.

The Prince was also scheduled to make a speech at an elite college.

But security officials said Peshawar was likely to be unstable after the attack in Bajaur.

Religious parties called for peaceful street protests in Bajaur and elsewhere.

Sporadic rallies broke out late on Monday in the main town in Bajaur and in Karachi.

Authorities also remember the mass riots against the blasphemous foreign newspaper cartoons in February, which left two people dead in Peshawar and several western businesses in flames.

Officials in Islamabad said they were aware that Prince Charles’ visit had been cancelled but said they were unable to comment. —AFP