LAHORE: Jamaatud Dawah emir Hafiz Muhammad Saeed has called upon Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Tahirul Qadri to include “peace in Palestine” in their charter of demands for pressing the government to take practical steps to stop ‘genocide’ of Palestinians.

Hafiz Saeed was speaking at JuD-sponsored ‘Palestine Unity Caravan’ that marched from Nasser Bagh up to Masjid Shuhada on The Mall.

Similar protests rallies were held in other major towns, including Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Peshawar, Quetta, Rawalpindi, Hyderabad and Multan, too.

In Lahore, Palestinian ambassador Waleed Abu Ali spoke to the rally by phone. Jamaat-i-Islami Secretary-General Liaqat Baloch, Lahore High Court Bar Association President Shafqat Mehmood Chohan, Allama Ahmad Ali Kasuri and a number of other religious leaders also spoke.

Hundreds of students, lawyers, traders, motorcyclists and representatives of civil society participated in the protest rally and chanted slogans against Israel and US.

Hafiz Saeed said that he had written a letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif requesting him to summon a Muslim leaders’ conference, but he restrained himself only to expressing solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian Muslims.

He said Muslim countries in the world were facing political crisis and national disintegration and it was all because of their silence on brutal killing of innocent Muslims in Palestine and Kashmir.

The JuD chief said that Israel was an illegal terrorist state and all Muslim countries should unite against it, ensuring that it must vanish from the world’s map.

He reiterated his suggestion that the Muslim countries should form their own union on the pattern of European Union to protect their interests.

He said the JuD would continue its countrywide movement against the Israeli aggression till complete peace in Palestine.

In his telephonic address, Waleed Abu Ali appreciated the efforts of the JuD emir in highlighting the Palestine issue not only in Pakistan, but all over the world.

He said that Israel was brutally killing innocent Muslims of Palestine, but unfortunately Muslim world was sitting silent.

He also criticized the ‘criminal silence’ of United Nations and European Union against the genocide of Palestinians. He said United Nations officials were just making drama on media and practically doing nothing to stop Muslim killings in Gaza.

Liaqat Baloch stressed that foreign ministers of all Muslim countries should play their role in re-invigorating OIC on all contemporary challenges faced by the Muslim Ummah.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2014