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IMRAN Khan's peace convoy smashed and negotiated its way through a series of police roadblocks yesterday, only to be turned back at the border of South Waziristan where it had planned to hold a protest rally against US drone strikes.

Yet the former cricketer-turned-politician hailed his much-publicised protest rally a resounding success as he addressed supporters and foreign activists instead in the northwest Pakistan town of Tank, the last stop on the road into the troubled Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

The 15km-long convoy was finally stopped by police at the border of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkwa and its semi-autonomous tribal belt, just 35km short of its destination.

Mr Khan told more than 1000 supporters - including about 80 foreign activists - that the march had already achieved its purpose of bringing the devastating civilian death rate from US drone-fired missiles to the world's attention.

"We are already successful in our mission," he said, referring to the aim of publicising the civilian casualties of the US drone campaign to target militants. "Your voice has reached the world over."

An official from Mr Khan's Movement for Justice party tweeted last night that Mr Khan had opted to turn the convoy around after an army major appealed to the prime ministerial aspirant not to endanger his life and those of his supporters.

"Sir, we have orders not to let you beyond Manzai. You are our future but, don't mind, you have to return," the official quoted the army major as saying.

Mr Khan told disappointed supporters last night he decided not to push into the South Waziristan village of Kotkai, the planned destination for the rally, because the convoy could not leave the area before nightfall and he did not want to imperil his supporters.

He also pledged to end the Frontier Crimes Regulation, an arcane British-era system of law with an emphasis on collective responsibility and punishment, under which the tribal belt is still governed, and bring the region under mainstream law.

But if the Pakistani government had hoped to take the wind out of Mr Khan's "political tsunami" by foiling his plans to show the world the devastation to civilian families caused by US drone-fired missiles, it will be disappointed. The march from Islamabad to the Waziristan border has been a publicity coup for the 60-year-old prime ministerial aspirant and his political campaign, which has been losing momentum in recent months.

Convoy participants tweeted triumphantly throughout the afternoon, describing an "electrifying" atmosphere and a road gridlocked by a sea of people determined to reach their destination.

Mr Khan himself had appeared unsure whether the rally would reach its destination and by the afternoon was showing signs of frustration.

Earlier in the day, Dera Ismail Khan political commissioner Kifayetullah defended his decision to blockade the road, pointing to leaflets distributed around the district by Taliban militants at the weekend vowing to "welcome" Mr Khan's convoy with bombs.

A Taliban spokesman later denied responsibility for the leaflets.

Mr Khan has made his opposition to the US drone-fired missiles a key plank of his platform and has said that if he were prime minister, he would authorise the shooting down of US drones because they violated Pakistan's sovereignty and killed innocent people.

A study last month by Stanford and New York university law schools concluded the CIA drone campaign in Pakistan terrorised Pakistan tribal communities, was politically counterproductive and killed large numbers of civilians.

The authors suggest between 2562 and 3325 people were killed in Pakistan from June 2004 to last month. The report was commissioned by London-based human rights group Reprieve whose chief, Clive Stafford-Smith, joined Mr Khan's weekend convoy along with 32 activists from the US anti-war group Code Pink.