Thousands of Pakistanis block key highway to protest against US drone strikes

The main supply route for NATO troops in Afghanistan was temporarily closed on Sunday after thousands of people blocked a key highway in Pakistan to protest against US drone strikes.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul, however, said the two-day blockade would have no impact on the alliance's operations in Afghanistan. "Coordination with Pakistani government officials has been conducted and we understand the government will maintain security," an ISAF spokesman said. "There is no impact on ISAF sustainment."

The call for blocking the supply line came from cricket-turn-politician Imran Khan after US officials rejected Pakistan's demand for sharp cuts in drone strikes in its tribal regions where al Qaeda and Taliban fighters are based.

Activists from Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI), Khan's party, and some Islamic parties staged a sit-in on the highway leading to Afghanistan through the Pashtun tribal region of Khyber. "It is meant to send a message outside that we oppose drone strikes. We will never accept them," Asad Qaiser, PTI president in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said.

The supply to Afghanistan through Khyber region had been suspended since the protest started on Saturday, a senior provincial government official, Siraj Ahmed, said. The Chaman border crossing in the southwest has remained open to traffic, another official said.