Outcry in Pakistan over supply routes

2012-05-25 35

ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)

STORY: Protesters rallied in Pakistan on Friday to warn there would be popular resistance to the restoration of NATO supply lines halted since last November.

Pakistan has said it is unlikely to re-open the routes to troops in Afghanistan unless the United States offers a politically accepted formula in talks on the issue, according to one official on Thursday.

But the United States has been pushing Pakistan over the six-month standoff.

Aside from the talks on NATO supply routes, Pakistan and the United States have been trying to patch up a series of other differences in their ties since the U.S. raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan last year. U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, which fuel anti-American sentiment, have also been a point of contention between the two countries.

Pakistan closed the NATO supply routes, seen as vital to the planned withdrawal of most foreign troops from Afghanistan, in protest against last November's killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a NATO attack along the Afghan border.

Free Traffic Exchange