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Afghan women,

children rally

against bloodshed

in Afghanistan

PESHAWAR: About 300 Afghan women and children demonstrated in Peshawar on Saturday against the continuing bloodshed in Afghanistan in the name of Islam.

Widows, orphans and disabled of the Afghan civil war participated in the rally organised by the Pakistan-based Revolutionary Association of Women of Afgahnistan (RAWA) on the fourth anniversary of the Afghan Mujahideen takeover in Kabul.

They shouted slogans condemning the warring Afghan factions for killing Afghan people and laying waste to the country in their power struggle.

Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia and India were named among the foreign countries allegedly fuelling the civil war in Afghanistan.

A leaflet distributed by RAWA said the Afghan Mujahideen's rule proved "worse than the communist rule" which was overthrown in 1992 as a consequence of the US-led "jihad" (holy war) against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Police escorted the two-kilometre-long march to the city centre where the domonstrators were persuaded to disperse.-PPI