LAHORE, March 20: The anti-war committee on Thursday urged the Americans to stop their ‘war-fanatic’ president from exerting military aggression on Iraq.

Human rights activists, members of the Lahore High Court Bar Association, the Punjab Bar Council and joint action committee participated in the rally held on The Mall by the anti-war committee.

Speaking to the participants, National Workers Party President Abid Hasan Minto said the attack was aimed at imposing imperial forces on Baghdad on the pretext that Iraq was a strategic risk to the entire region.

He apprehended that the imperial forces would try to occupy other countries as well after Iraq.

PPP-SB leader Dr Mubashir Hasan termed the strikes on Iraq as efforts for the restoration of colonial system on the entire world.

Anti-war committee secretary-general Farrukh Sohail Goindi urged complete boycott of the US products. He crashed the bottle of a US beverage company on the road as a symbolic protest.

Pakistan Labour Party’s general secretary Farooq Tariq said the attack was not aimed at the destruction of mass-destruction weapons. Rather it was purported for a complete control on the oil fields of Iraq. South Asians for Human Rights chairperson Asma Jehangir also deplored attacks on Iraq.

In a statement, she said a war on Iraq could possibly be a turning point as it would set a dangerous precedent. He said that according to Article 2 of the UN Charter, all states should refrain from the threat or use of force that is inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.

Asma Jehangir feared that South Asia would also be hit by the adverse consequences of war which would pitch many societies against each other.