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GUJRANWALA, Nov 8: “Intimidation can’t deter religious parties from observing wheel-jam strike on Friday,” said Jamaat-i-Islami’s Punjab chief Hafiz Muhammad Idrees at a news conference on Thursday.
He said the government agencies had been pressurizing and threatening ulema of different schools of thought to stop them from taking out rallies against the bombing of Afghanistan by the US-led coalition.
He said the Pak-Afghan Defence Council and ulema belonging to different schools of thought had confirmed that despite government pressure they would take out rallies to show solidarity with their Afghan brethren.
Hafiz Idrees said the US and its allies had waged a war against Islam in the name of “fight against terrorism”. But Pakistani ulema would defeat the American designs at any cost, he added.
He said the strike would be peaceful and they would resist all government moves to stop them from observing strike.
Jamaat-i-Islami district amir Maulana Obaidur Rehman Madni, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam’s Maulana Abdul Malik Shah, Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan’s Maulana Ghulam Farid, Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan leader Maulana Ghulam Kibria Shah, Jamiat Ahle Hadith leader Maulana Muhammad Rafiq, Jamaat Ahle Sunnat leader Qari Salim Zahid and PML(N) MNA Ghulam Dastgir Khan were present on the occasion.
They assured the council that they would take part in the strike.
BEATEN UP: The members of a group beat up their rivals in the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital besides smashing the windowpanes and furnitures on Thursday.
Men of a businessman, Malik Afzal, injured the sons of his rival Shafi Bhutta over a business row. They were admitted to the THQ Hospital. The Afzal group attacked them there and beat them again. They kidnapped one Munir Bhutta and thrashed him. Later, they threw him on the railway track at Wazirabad railway station.
The patients and their attendants saved their lives by taking refuge in nearby shops and buildings.
AID FOR AFGHANS: Five truckloads containing food items and other items were sent to Afghanistan by Lashkar-i-Taiba on Thursday.
A spokesman for the organization said more donations collected by them would be sent to Afghanistan in a few days.
CHILD LABOUR: Provincial Minister for Social Welfare Shaheen Atiqur Rehman has said that elimination of child labour was the top priority of the government and it was taking steps to this effect.
Speaking at a ceremony at a social welfare school in the People’s Colony here on Thursday, she said children were the future asset and they should be given better health and education facilities.
She visited the Sundas Foundation and inquired after the health of children admitted there.
