Pakistani leaders protest US drone attacks

A group of officials and lawmakers in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Monday lodged a protest at the US consulate in Peshawar city against the US drone strikes.

Senior minister of the provincial government Siraj-ul-Haq led a group of provincial ministers and lawmakers who marched to the heavily-guarded US consulate and handed over a protest note to the diplomats, saying that the American drone strikes violate Pakistan's sovereignty and kill innocent people, Xinhua reported.

The protest came days after a US drone fired missiles on a religious school in Hangu district, killing six students and teachers along with two leaders of the Afghan Taliban- linked Haqqani Network.

Protests against the drone strikes continued with supporters of the provincial ruling parties blocking supplies for NATO-led troops in Afghanistan for the third consecutive day Monday.

The protesters set up camps on different routes leading to the Afghan border to stop and search all loaded container trucks heading to the border points.

Meanwhile, transporters in the port city of Karachi said hundreds of NATO containers in the city and those on the way to the Torkham border point were stopped due to protest.