Massive anti-US rallies in Pakistan

Thousands of angry Pakistani demonstrators have taken to the streets of Islamabad to protests their government’s alliance with the United States.

Protesters gathered near the parliament house amid heavy police presence on Sunday. They demanded Islamabad cut all ties with Washington.

The Pakistani Jamaat-e-Islami activists shouted anti-US slogans during a rally in the capital city.
They also demanded the release of Pakistani scientist Aafia Siddiqui. A US federal court has sentenced Siddiqui to 86 years in prison for allegedly shooting at her American interrogators in Afghanistan.

Siddiqui vanished in Karachi, Pakistan with her three children on March 30, 2003. The following day, local newspapers reported that she had been taken into US custody on terrorism charges.
Human rights groups say that Siddiqui had secretly been transferred to the US base in Bagram, north of Kabul, and tortured for five years prior to the alleged 2008 incident.

Meanwhile, some protesters were there to warn the government against a military operation in the North Waziristan tribal region. They said such a move would trigger a new wave of unrest.
The US has been asking Pakistan to launch a major ground offensive into the northern tribal region to crush militancy.

Hundreds of Pakistanis have lost their lives since the former military ruler Pervez Musharraf joined the US-led so-called war on terror following the 9/11 attacks.
Militant attacks, unsanctioned drone strikes and political unrest have claimed the lives of over 4,000 people throughout Pakistan since 2007.