KARACHI: The Jamaatud Dawa staged a rally to express solidarity with Saudi Arabia on Tuesday and praised the government as well as the armed forces for pledging support for the brother Islamic country.

The rally — “Harmain Sharifain March” — was organised from Safari Park to the Nipa traffic intersection.

Waving party flags and holding banners and placards, participants in the rally held hands to form a human chain in front of Markaz Motamar Al-Alam Islami.

Speakers paid tribute to the Pakistan army and termed it the “army of Islam”.

The chief of the JuD’s Karachi chapter, Dr Muzammil Iqbal Hashmi, said on the occasion that Saudi Arabia was the spiritual centre of the Muslim world and every Muslim considered its protection his obligation.

He said the uprising in Yemen was a conspiracy against Harmain Sharifain.

Take a look: Yemen conflict: Neutrality no longer an option for Pakistan?

He recalled that Saudi Arabia had always sided with Pakistan and now the entire Pakistani nation was ready to sacrifice everything for their Islamic brethren.

He suggested Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif convene a summit of Muslim rulers in Islamabad to chalk out a strategy to deal with the situation. The PM would find the entire Muslim world standing shoulder to shoulder with him, he added.

Other speakers observed that the present situation in Yemen was the outcome of the conspiracies of anti-Islam forces.

Such forces were using Yemen to tighten the noose around Saudi Arabia to harm the spiritual centre of the Muslim world, they added.

Protecting Harmain Sharifain was not the protection of Saudi Arabia but of the Islamic world and there could be no compromise on its defence.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2015

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