KARACHI: Protests held against Iraq bombing, cartoons
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Feb 23: Heavy deployment of police was made to maintain law and order on Thursday as several processions were taken out in protest against the publication of blasphemous cartoons in the western press and bomb attacks on the shrine of Imam Hasan Askari in Iraq.
The police had been deployed on the routes of all three processions taken out by the Pakistan People’s Party, the Jamiat Ulema Islam, and the Imamia Students Organization. The processions passed through Saddar and terminated at either Karachi Press Club or near the Governor’s House.
Shops and markets remained closed in many localities including Ancholi, Rizvia Society, Jaffar-i-Tayyar Society, Abbas Town and others in protest against the bomb attack on a shrine containing the tombs of the tenth imam of the Shias, Imam Ali Naqi, and his son, the eleventh imam, Imam Hasan Askari.
PPP: The protest demonstration of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Karachi Division, against the blasphemous cartoons on Thursday was held at the Empress Market calling for severing ties with countries involved in the act and boycott of Danish products, adds PPI.
It was led by President, PPP Karachi Division Rashid Rabbani.
PPP supporters from all over the city gathered at the Empress Market in front of Rainbow Centre. They were holding banners and placards inscribed with anti-blasphemy slogans.
They raised slogans against Danish cartoonists, European countries supporting blasphemous acts, the US and Israel besides raising slogans of ‘Allah is Great’.
The President of PPP Sindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, addressing the demo demanded of the government to strongly protest against the blasphemous act.
Rashid Rabbani said the PPP would not stop its protests till the blasphemous cartoonists are punished. He demanded the government to slash diplomatic relations with countries involved in the blasphemy. The speakers also asked people to boycott Danish products.
Rafiq Engineer demanded the government to discuss the blasphemy issue in the UN.
He said the EU was supporting blasphemy and those who termed it as freedom of expression should tell what their feelings would be if someone attacked their religion and prophets.
MMA AND JI: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal on Thursday strongly condemned the bomb attacks on the shrines of Imam Askari and Imam Ali Naqi in Iraq and termed it part of the US and Israeli conspiracies to create rifts between the Muslim Ummah.
In a joint statement, MMA leaders and MNAs Muhammad Hussain Mehanti, Abdus Sattar Afghani and Muhammad Laeeq Khan condemned the attacks on holy places in Iraq and said that despite these cowardly attacks the Ummah was united.
They alleged that bomb attacks on sacred places and attacks on mosques were part of the US and Israeli conspiracy to harm unity among Muslims. But both the Sunnis and Shias had made it clear that they were not interested in fighting each other as was the plans of anti-Islam forces.
They also condemned the brutalities of the US and her allies against the Iraqi people and said these claimants of the civilized world were committing anti-human acts by using chemical and weapons of mass destruction against unarmed Iraqi people.
“But they should know that the oppressors in Vietnam and Afghanistan had faced humiliating defeats. They too will face the same fate in Iraq and Afghanistan in the near future,” they added.
MADRESSAH STUDENTS: A large number of students of local religious madressahs held a peaceful protest demonstration on Thursday in front of the Karachi Press Club against publication of blasphemous cartoons in European newspapers and termed it a conspiracy against the ummah.
The demo was organized by the Islamic Students Movement, mainly comprising students of local religious madressahs, who had come from far flung areas of the city and its suburbs.
Carrying banners and placards inscribed with slogans against European newspapers and leaders especially of Denmark, the US and Israel, the protesting youths chanted slogans against blasphemous cartoons and demanded death penalties to the perpetrators.
Meanwhile, The Amir of Jamaat-i-Islami Sindh, Dr Mumtaz Ali Memon, has strongly condemned bombings in Iraq and said the Hangu bomb blast, blasphemous cartoons and now the bombing at the mausoleums of Muslim saints in Baghdad were part of the same conspiracy.
KUTS: The Karachi University Teachers’ Society strongly condemned bomb attacks on the shrine of Imam Hassan Askari and Imam Ali Naqi in Iraq.
In a statement, the teachers’ society termed the act a conspiracy against Muslim unity shown over the publication of blasphemous caricatures. The attacks on mosques in Iraq were also condemned.
KARACHI, Feb 23: Heavy deployment of police was made to maintain law and order on Thursday as several processions were taken out in protest against the publication of blasphemous cartoons in the western press and bomb attacks on the shrine of Imam Hasan Askari in Iraq.
