June 21, 2007	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 05, 1428

KOHAT, June 20: Hundreds of workers and supporters of Tehrik-i-Jaafria Pakistan on Wednesday staged a rally to condemn Britain for the award of knighthood to controversial writer Salman Rushdie, and bombing of shrines of Imam Hasan Askari and Imam Ali Naqi in Iraq.

The procession was taken out from Imambargah Syed Habib Shah, and after marching through different roads, its participants assembled at Zargran Chowk where Tehrik-i-Jaafria Pakistan leaders addressed the protesters.

In his speech, Tehrik-i-Jaafria Pakistan Kohat’s leader Shah Abul Hassan demanded of the British government to take back the knighthood from Salman Rushdie who, he said, was an apostate and deserved death punishment for his blasphemous book.

Two other leaders, Mian Shah Raza and Mohammad Riaz advocate, in their speeches condemned attacks on shrines of Imam Hassan Askari (AS) and Imam Ali Naqi (AS) in Iraq, and demanded an apology from the US-led occupation forces.

They said that these incidents had increased hatred among 1.5 billion Muslims of the world against western countries.

They said that consequences for these incidents would be bitter for the West.