Hundreds of Afghan students demonstrated Tuesday against a possible security pact with the United States, chanting anti-US slogans in the first major public protest over the deal.
The demonstration in the eastern city of Jalalabad comes as thousands of tribal chieftains and politicians are set to gather this week in the Afghan capital to discuss the pact which will shape Washington's future military presence in the war-scarred nation.
The bilateral security agreement (BSA) will determine how many US soldiers stay in Afghanistan when most of NATO's troops deployed in the country since 2001 -- currently numbering 75,000 -- leave at the end of 2014.
Prior to the demonstration by Jalalabad University students in the eastern province of Nangarhar, little public opposition was reported over the BSA deal.
Taliban militants have however branded the tribal meeting a US-designed plot, vowing to pursue and punish its delegates as traitors if they approve the BSA.
"The people (of) Afghanistan should not sign this agreement," Shafiullah, a student who uses only one name, told AFP as demonstrators chanted "Death to the US".
Another student Habib-Ul Rahman Arab accused the delegates, most of them hand-picked by President Hamid Karzai's administration, of being government supporters.
"They are not our representatives. They are not representatives of (the) Afghan people," he said.
The crowd, which according to an AFP reporter on the scene numbered around 1,000, blocked a key road between Kabul and Jalalabad.
The four-day "Loya Jirga" -- Pashto for grand assembly -- is set to start on Thursday.
Afghanistan has been gripped by an insurgency since 2001 and tens of thousands of US and NATO troops have been deployed since then.
The bulk of the US and NATO troops are set to leave Afghanistan at the end of 2014. But under the BSA, if signed, the US will maintain some military presence.
Short link: