July 14, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 28, 1428

DERA GHAZI KHAN, July 13: Students of various seminaries staged protest demonstrations after Friday prayers in Dera Ghazi Khan and other southern parts of Punjab against the Lal Masjid operation.

A major demonstration was held at Traffic Chowk here while reports from Abdullah Ghazi village in Rojhan Mazari (Rajanpur district) said a large number of people, who visited the grave of Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi, held a protest meeting.

Mufti Habibur Rehman Darkhwasti, provincial leader of the JUI-Sami, demanded the formation of a Supreme Court bench for an independent inquiry into “the massacre of the innocent people”.

Sources said fresh contingents of the Rangers had reached Rajanpur to heighten security.

BAHAWALPUR: Resolutions condemning the Lal Masjid operation were passed in major mosques.

Copies of the resolutions were provided to the prayer leaders who read them out before winding up their sermons. The resolutions demanded judicial probe into the killings.

Meanwhile, a protest rally was taken out under the banner of the MMA from Jamia Masjid Al-Sadiq after prayers. The participants, including seminary students, flashed placards inscribed with anti-government slogans.

Among the speakers were MMA deputy parliamentary leader in Punjab Assembly Dr Syed Waseem Akhtar and District Bar Association Secretary-General Imtiaz Awan who called for an inquiry by the apex court.

VEHARI: On the call of the Wafaqul Madaris, the MMA and other religio-political parties took out procession and vent ire against the government at Pakistan Chowk.

The participants said the MMA would move court for registration of a case against Gen Pervez Musharraf who was responsible for the killing of a number of students. They said the government’s claim of recovering weapons from the Lal Masjid was baseless.

They also challenged the casualty figures as given by the government, saying the number of those killed or injured was much more than the figures announced by the officials.

MUZAFFARGARH: This part of the province also saw an MMA-led protest rally in which the speakers ripped to shreds the government.

Jamaat-i-Islami’s district amir Umar Daraz Farooqi said hundreds of students and teachers of the Lal Masjid had laid down their lives and their perpetrators would not be condoned.

LAYYAH: Sentimental speeches set the tone of the protest rally taken out from Masjid Karnalwali to Saddar Bazaar southern gate.