KARACHI, Oct 14: The Pak-Afghan Defence Council, on Sunday, announced that there will be a complete strike in Karachi like other parts of the country on Monday, on the occasion of the scheduled visit of US Secretary of State Colin Powell and the continuing US bombardment on Afghanistan.

This was announced at the council’s meeting on Sunday which formed coordination committees for the purpose of making contacts with like-minded groups and individuals for the defence of Afghanistan.

Those who attended the meeting included Maulana Mohammad Asad Thanvi, Maulana Asad Bhutto, Maulana Abdul Karim, Sahibzada Abul Khair Mohammad Zubari, Maulana Mohammad Ahmed Madani, Mufti Usman Yar Khan, Maulana Qari Abdul Mannan Anwar, Maulana Dr Qasim Mahmood, Allama Arshad Wazirabadi, Maulana Mushtaq Ahmed Abbasi, Maulana Iqbal Ullah, Maulana Ilyas Zubair, Maulana Syed Mohammad Amin Shah and Qarim Ghulam Yasin.

The meeting also announced that Sipaha-i-Sahaba Pakistan had been entrusted with the responsibility of hosting Defence of Emirate Conference at Banaras Chowk.

The meeting said that like other parts of the country, the people of Sindh would also protest against US aggression on the landlocked country on the visit of the US senior official.

Instigators: Those instigating the people to go on strike and indulge in violent behaviour will have to bear the brunt as they will be made to pay for loss to private or public property besides normal legal course, adds APP.

This was stated by the interior minister, Moinuddin Haider, on Sunday, while talking to reporters at the inaugural ceremony of Pakistan’s first international multi-node video conference at Karachi Institute of Information Technology, he said protests should be peaceful and participants should avoid taking the law into their hands.

He said that only a small minority is religiously sentimental, but still the government will not tolerate lawlessness. They will be made to pay for losses to property by the mobs, besides being taken to task under relevant legal course, he asserted.

Responding to a question about the Jacobabad incident, he said the air force base is not a public place and law-enforcing agencies have to keep people and processions away from such places.

He added that a procession was advancing towards the base which was stopped from entering the base premises.