September 10, 2008	Wednesday	Ramazan 09, 1429

KARACHI, Sept 9: Jamaat-i-Islami Deputy Chief Prof Ghafoor Ahmad has said that the country is facing grave internal and external threats and it is for the first time in the history of Pakistan that the US army is carrying out ground attacks in the tribal areas of the country.

Prof Ghafoor, who was speaking at a press conference at Idara Noor-i-Haq with JI local chief Mohammad Hussain Mehnati and secretary Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman on Tuesday, said that after the formation of the new government the US army had violated our borders thrice. Terming it a big threat to the independence and sovereignty of the country, he said now that the president and the prime minister both were from the Pakistan People’s Party, it was a big test of the PPP whether it could ensure protection of life and property of the people.

Earlier, he accused the government of playing the role of a silent spectator in Karachi, the biggest city of the country, which “has been turned into a place of execution of humans”.

Recalling the murder of two activists of his party’s students wing, the IJT, in Karachi University in the presence of the Rangers, he said his party and the IJT had given unprecedented sacrifices for the restoration of democracy, but now in an era being termed a democratic one, IJT workers, including its local chief in Malir, were gunned down.

He said even before that whatever incidents of assassination had taken place not only the provincial and federal governments, but also Rangers and police were responsible for the killing.

Prof Ghafoor said the Rangers had been present in the city for a long time as subservient to the provincial government and their basic responsibility was to maintain peace in the city and the province, but it was a tragedy that whenever killing took place in the city, the Rangers played the role of spectators

Mohammad Hussain Mehnati warned that if target killing of political workers and leaders continued, the city’s peace would be disturbed.

He held the Sindh governor responsible for the situation and said peace could not be restored in the province in the present governor’s presence.