2,000 rally to condemn Pakistan over new Afghan border controls
(16 Jan 2007) 1. Wide of demonstration, protesters carrying banners and placards 2. Close-up of protester carrying placard 3. Wide of protesters carrying red flags 4. Protesters carrying placards reading: "No division of Pashtuns, no fencing, no mining" 5. Wide of protest 6. Protesters sitting on ground with placards 7. SOUNDBITE: (Pashto) Asghar Achkzai, Leader of Awami National Party: "The two countries have decided to ignore Pakistan and Afghanistan's Jirga (community of elders from tribes). Pakistan has nominated officials rather than tribes." 8. Protesters sitting on the ground 9. SOUNDBITE: (Pashto) Sardar Gillani Khan Achkzai, Leader of Awami National Party: "We don't accept the fence and oppose mining and fencing the border." 10. Various of protesters listening to speech STORYLINE: About 2,000 ethnic Pashtun tribesmen rallied in the Pakistani border town of Chaman near Afghanistan on Monday to condemn Pakistan's government for new border control measures. Chanting anti-Pakistan slogans, the protesters also asked the government to abandon its plan to plant mines and build a fence along parts of its frontier with Afghanistan - measures that could divide Pashtun families living on both sides of the rugged, ill-defined border. The rally in the border town of Chaman came a week after Pakistan opened its first biometrics control system to screen travellers as a part of its efforts to check cross-border movement by militants. It also came weeks after Pakistan said it would fence and mine parts of its frontier with Afghanistan to check militants' activities - a plan also opposed by the Afghan government, which accuses Pakistan of abetting the Taliban. Monday's protest came three days after thousands of angry Pashtuns held a rally on the Afghan side of the border against the new controls. Since then, Pakistan has temporarily suspended the use of the sophisticated system at Chaman, but it has not announced any change in its plan to fence and mine the frontier with Afghanistan Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
