February 17, 2006	Friday	Muharram 18, 1427

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

LAHORE, Feb 16: The Tahafuz Namoos-i-Risalat Mahaz has announced countrywide protest day against blasphemous depictions on Friday (today) and convened a conference in the city on March 1.

Speaking at a joint press conference here on Thursday, TNRM leaders Dr Sarfraz Naeemi, Maulana Ahmad Ali Kasuri, Pir Afzal Qadri, Engineer Saleemullah and Mufti Muhammad Khan Qadri said the government, and not they, were responsible for Tuesday’s violence.

“Maintaining law and order is the most primary obligation of a government and not the masses.”

Blaming government agencies for the setting ablaze buildings, they claimed that they had evidences to prove their allegation.

The Mahaz would get a case registered against the Punjab chief minister, the home secretary and the inspector-general of police for two deaths during the protest against cartoons in the city.

They also vowed to stage a sit-in before parliament if the government did not withdraw amendment to the blasphemy law.

They were of the view that enforcement of an international law through the United Nations was needed for curbing blasphemy of prophets in any country.

They said they would not go for bails in the case registered by the Civil Lines police against them for violence. Some 500 activists had been arrested when they were returning home after attending the rally, they claimed.

Demanding payment of compensation to the traders who were deprived of their businesses, they rejected the chief minister’s meeting with some ulema on Wednesday as a gathering of ‘courtiers’ and ‘flatterers’.

MMA: The MMA will take out its anti-cartoon rally from Nasser Bagh on Feb 26 as the participants will march up to the Charing Cross on The Mall.

A decision to the effect was taken at a meeting of the MMA provincial body with secretary-general Pir Ijaz Hashmi in the chair here on Thursday.

Qazi Husain Ahmad, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Raja Zafarul Haq, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Imran Khan and Dr Sarfraz Naeemi will lead the rally.

Lahore MMA president Hafiz Salman Butt, Saifuddin Saif and Malik Bashir Nizami told a press conference that the leaders of all the 10 towns in the city had been directed to nominate in-charges of all groups at union council level coming to join the rally so that no anti-social element could find a place among them.

Sources said the student wings of religious parties were being activated to keep an eye on “potential miscreants” and nab them immediately when they would resort to hooliganism.

A meeting of the city chapter of the National Consultative Council, which will organize the protest, would be held on Feb 19 to review and finalize the arrangements for the rally, the MMA leaders said, adding no ban on the right to protest would be accepted.

They appealed to the masses to enthusiastically participate in the rally, but avoid violence. They demanded that the government should compensate the victims of Tuesday’s violence.