KARACHI, March 18: Left-wing parties and groups, along with trade unions staged a rally here on Saturday to condemn the US occupation of Iraq. Carrying red flags, portraits of Karl Marx and Lenin, placards and banners, the participants converged on Fresco Chowk and started a march towards the Regal Chowk as a mark of solidarity with the people of Iraq.

The banners and placards were inscribed with slogans condemning the US aggression and calling it to quit Iraq, stop intervention in Afghanistan, etc. Some banners carried slogans of “Stop military operations in Balochistan and Waziristan” and “We want peace, not war”.

The marchers were raising slogans against the US imperialism and the Musharraf government.

The march was organized by the ‘Stop The War Coalition-Pakistan’ and the participants included activists from the Communist Party of Pakistan, Pakistan Liberal Party, Mazdoor Kissan Party, National Party, National Workers Party, Awami National Party, Jeay Sindh Mahaz, Democratic Lawyers Association and Pakistan Trade Union.

Yawar Abbas (STWCP), Hasil Khan Bizenjo (NP), Yusuf Mastikhan (NWP), Amin Khatak (ANP), Abdul Khaliq Junejo (JSM), Mairaj Mohammad Khan and Iqbal Haider (HRCP) were among the prominent leaders present on the occasion.

At the Regal Chowk, the participants held a public meeting and passed ‘Declaration of Karachi’ presented by the STWC-P which condemned the continued occupation of Iraq by the US imperialist forces for the past three years.

The declaration termed the aggression ‘unethical, illegal and inhuman’, and deplored that it was causing massive destruction and bringing unimaginable miseries to the people of Iraq. It condemned the killings of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis over the three-year period, and pointed out that the war had left countless Iraqi people homeless and children orphan.

According to the declaration, the situation in Afghanistan, and in Pakistan where military operations are under way in Balochistan and Waziristan areas, is also a direct consequence of the US intervention.

The rally demanded unconditional withdrawal of all foreign forces from Iraq and Afghanistan and closure of all US bases around the world, including those in Pakistan.

It asked all imperialist powers to destroy their weapons of mass destruction unilaterally. It called for an end to their monopoly on the Nuclear Club to make the world safe from the much feared nuclear holocaust.

The declaration urged the US to stop meddling in the affairs of other countries.