LAHORE: The Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) observed Friday as a black day across the country against India’s brutalities in the held Kashmir, the US bombing in Kunduz, Afghanistan, and Israel’s oppression against the Palestinians.

Addressing Khatm-i-Bukhari ceremony at Jamia Arabia in Gujranwala, JI emir Sirajul Haq called for convening a joint session of the parliament and a multi-party conference on the Kashmir issue. He stressed the need for contacting the Muslim countries for special meetings of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) and the UN Security Council over genocide of the Muslims in Kashmir, Palestine and Syria.

While condemning the US bombing of a Kunduz seminary, the JI chief said that the US had crossed all the limits of brutality and had targeted small children reciting the Quran. He deplored that the so-called human rights bodies had not raised a voice on this incident.

Mr Haq termed the ruling class as the biggest hurdle in the solution to the Kashmir issue because it did not consider Kashmir as their issue. He said the Kashmiris had been offering sacrifices for Pakistan for the last 70 years and Kashmiri leaders, including Syed Ali Shah Gilani, had braved all forms of Indian tyranny and oppression but not wavered from their stance.

JI deputy chief Hafiz Muhammad Idrees, in his Friday address at the Mansoora mosque, said the blood of the Kashmiris and Palestinians was being shed but the Muslim rulers were blind and deaf and dumb.

JI Secretary General Liaqat Baloch addressed a rally in Faisalabad.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2018