ISLAMABAD, Dec 10: Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (Rawa) on the eve of Human Rights Day on Tuesday staged a protest demonstration in front of the United Nations office demanding restoration of democracy in Afghanistan.

Around 500 people including men, women and children chanted slogans against both Talibans and the Northern Alliance rulers and called upon the US-led forces in Afghanistan to disarm the warring factions so that normalcy could return to the war ravaged country.

Mareena of Rawa talking to newsmen present on the occasion criticized the western powers including the US for prolonging the Afghanistan crisis for their own vested interests.

“If they (the US-led forces) can thrash well-armed Taliban regime within no time than why not the warring factions which are still occupying most of Afghanistan except Kabul and its surroundings,” she added.

Ms Mareena said, at present, Karzai’s government had no writ in the country and most of its provinces were being controlled by powerful warlords.

She maintained that Northern Alliance people were more hostile to human rights than their predecessors and should be removed from government. The Northern Alliance held power from 1992 to 1996 and during the time brutalities committed by the alliance reached such a level that the people of Afghanistan forgot the “bombardment and mass executions by the Russian invaders and their Parchami servants”, she added.

A press release distributed among mediamen present on the occasion also lambasted the killings of two Kabul University students, Ghafar and Rahim, and termed the incident as disgracing scar on the forehead of the fundamentalists and their accomplices which showed the fragility of the present government.

It said by merely creating various commissions and representation of women as minister would do no good to the ill-fated women of the war-torn country.