November 17, 2003	Monday	Ramazan 21, 1424

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KARACHI, Nov 16: Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s Vice-President and Chief of Jamaat-i-Islami, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, has said conspiracies are being hatched at the government level to bring about a split in the alliance.

He termed the murder of Maulana Azam Tariq and arrest of Allama Sajid Naqvi part of the conspiracies aimed at creating disunity in MMA. Mr Ahmad, in the city to attend the MMA’s supreme council meeting to be held on Monday, stated this while addressing an Iftar party in Akhtar Colony which was organized by Jamaat-i-Islami.

He claimed that the efforts to damage the MMA were being made due to pressure from the US and Millat-i-Islamia, Islami Tehreek and Anjuman Khuddam-ul-Islam had also been banned to appease Washington.

Protesting over the arrest of Allama Sajid Naqvi, Mr Ahmad claimed that the people behind Maulana Azam Tariq’s murder in Islamabad in broad daylight belonged to the government.

MMA leader said the rulers had surrendered to the US and the operation in tribal areas of the country was being carried out on its instructions. Gen Musharraf was part of the coalition led by the US who had put the freedom, sovereignty, security and defence of the country at stake.

Mr Ahmad said that although the Ummah was rich in resources, some foreign agents had been imposed on the Muslims as their rulers who were exploiting and misusing these. He said those who had played into the hands of the Americans could not be described as the well-wishers of the Ummah.

Claiming that it did not like to see a Muslim country become a nuclear power, he said Washington was talking openly against the nuclear programmes of Pakistan, Iran and Syria. But, he said, the people of Afghanistan and Iraq, through their resistance and sacrifices against the US, had saved the Ummah and now America was not in a position to launch aggression against Iran or Syria.

Earlier, addressing a gathering at Masjid-i-Khizra late on Saturday, Mr Ahmad said the Muslims were not terrorists but victims of terrorism throughout the world. He said Jihad fi Sabilillah was the name of a struggle to eliminate oppression, repression and to establish the rule of equality and justice since Islam was the faith of love, peace, equality and justice and a message of welfare for the entire humanity.

He said it was Jihad through which the humanity could be rid of the shackles of oppression. The JI chief said MMA was a movement for the unity of the Ummah that had become the axis of aspirations for the entire nation. This was not liked by the enemies of Islam and so conspiracies were being hatched to damage it.

Mr Ahmad said the religious seminaries and their educational system was the target of the enemies because these had helped keep the Muslim culture alive. This was why the West considered them a threat.