Islamists rally against U.S. in Islamabad.

  • 12 years ago
ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)

STORY: Hundreds of activists belonging to various Islamist parties demonstrated in the Pakistani capital Tuesday to protest against the government's decision to hold a parliamentary review of fraught ties with the United States.

The protest came hours after U.S. President Barack Obama met Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit in Seoul.

In the highest-level contact between the uneasy allies since U.S. commandos killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani military town last May, Obama conceded relations had been strained in recent months.

Islamabad called the commando raid a violation of its sovereignty, deeply straining ties between the two nations, which sank even further in November when NATO forces in Afghanistan killed 24 Pakistani border soldiers by mistake.

Pakistan shut off ground supply lines to the U.S.-led NATO mission in land-locked Afghanistan in the wake of the attack, and forced U.S. personnel off a base used to launch drone strikes against militants along the Pakistan-Afghan border.

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