HYDERABAD: Police stopped Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) from holding a ‘multiparty conference’ (MPC) on Kashmir issue at the press club on Friday reportedly after receiving ‘orders’ from high-ups in the wake of house arrest of JuD chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed.

JuD leaders decided to cancel the conference and disperse peacefully. Later, they informed media persons through an SMS that the MPC had to be cancelled because of some ‘unavoidable circumstances’. A heavy contingent of police had sealed the road with barbed wire outside the press club.

JuD Sindh emir Faisal Nadeem said the MPC was not organised by JuD only, it was held by Tehreek-i-Azadi Kashmir, a platform founded by JuD and other parties to discuss Kashmir’s freedom movement.

He said that such MPCs were earlier held in Badin, Sukkur and other districts and were attended by Jamaat-i-Islami, Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Samiul Haq, PPP, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, PML-N and others in the past.

“But Hyderabad police did not allow us to hold it and we postponed it because we do not want to disrupt peace at any cost,” he said.

Published in Dawn February 4th, 2017