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Activists protest in Dhaka at S Asian nuclear race

DHAKA: Some 150 peace activists from Bangladesh and 13 other countries ended a three-day disarmament conference in Dhaka on Sunday with demonstrations outside the embassies of nuclear powers Pakistan and India.

They carried placards and banners with demands for an end to the nuclear race in the region and global disarmament.

Protesters handed a copy of a memorandum to an official of the Pakistani High Commission. An Indian official refused to accept a copy.

The Dhaka conference was organised jointly by a Bangkok-based non-governmental organisation, Focus on the Global South, and Bangladesh's Community Development Library.

It adopted a "Dhaka declaration" which urged India and Pakistan "to dismantle their nuclear programmes and sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty".

It also called on the U.S., Russia, Britain, France, China, India and Pakistan "to honour their disarmament obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty" and abolish nuclear weapons.-Reuters