DHAKA: An anti-government cleric who has been campaigning in Islamabad, calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, has ended his 65-day-long protest.

Tahir ul-Qadri - who leads both the Pakistan Awami Tehreek party and the Minhaj-ul-Quran international network of religious schools - announced on Tuesday that he would now tour major Pakistan cities holding sit-ins and agitating for the launch of a ‘revolution of the poor’.

“This sit-in has achieved its purpose, it has awakened the nation and played its role in the path of revolution,” Qadri told thousands of his supporters.

Soon after Qadri’s announcement, thousands of his protesters started packing up their camps and hugging one another as they said goodbye, reports Al Jazeera on Wednesday.

“We have spent a difficult time here and have established good relationships with each other,” said Fauzia Habib, a young girl at the protest area.

“Now when we are leaving I am a bit grim but happy too that we have spent time for a good cause.”

BDST: 1721 HRS, OCT 22, 2014