ISLAMABAD, Jan 7: The All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) said on Monday it would observe a three-day countrywide protest from Jan 11 to 13 against flour, electricity and gas shortages.

Condoling Benazir Bhutto’s death with her family and party, the APDM meeting held the government responsible for the incident and blamed it for “conniving with foreign forces to harm the country’s solidarity”.

The APDM’s joint action committee which met here under Liaquat Baloch decided to hold rallies across the country from Jan 22 to Feb 16 against elections and to persuade voters to boycott the process.

According to the programme, the rallies will be held on alternate days in major cities.

The meeting also formed a committee to persuade major opposition parties, including the PML-N, PPP and the JUI-F, to boycott the elections.

The APDM committee asked PPP leaders to review the stance “towards elements who had killed 84 children in Bajaur Agency two years ago, created the Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa situations and said that the same people had played a part in Ms Bhutto’s assassination.

The meeting opposed the Scotland Yard investigation, and supported the PPP’s call for a UN-led inquiry.