MUZAFFARABAD, Oct 15: Hundreds of Jaish-i-Mohammad activists on Monday took out a procession and held a rally to condemn the US ban on their organization and the air-strikes against Afghanistan.

“Down with America. We reject the US ban on Jaish-i-Mohammad and Harkatul Mujahideen,” they chanted vociferously all along their march from Upper Adda to the Old Civil Secretariat, where the rally was held.

The participants included members of Harkatul Mujahideen and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Azad Kashmir. About 50 activists of Jaish were clad in white “shrouds” and many others wore army fatigues.

The AJK government had deployed heavy contingents of police to meet any eventuality, and much to its satisfaction the procession and the rally remained peaceful.

At one stage, the police personnel got panicky when some activists rushed towards a hotel on Bank Road at the rooftop of which two Belgian journalists were taking pictures of the procession.

The journalists, who were in town on the invitation of the export promotion bureau, were removed from the place.

The Jaish activists snatched cameras of some photojournalists to stop them from taking snaps of the procession, but later allowed them to shoot the rally.

Speaking at the rally, Maulana Asmatullah Moavia, chief of Jaish-i-Mohammad in Azad Kashmir, said the US had put the ban on Harkatul Mujahideen and his group at the instigation of India.

“But,” he declared, “we reject this ban and make it clear to the whole world that such restrictions cannot force us to stop the fighting in the way of Allah.”

He said the “duplicity of the infidels” could lead to the establishment of dozens of Al Qaeda which had also been banned by the US.

The Jaish leader rejected reports as baseless that his group had renamed itself as Tehrikul Furqan, saying both were separate entities.

When he asked the enthusiastic participants if they would join the Jihad, they replied in the affirmative by raising their hands amid slogans of Labbaik, Labbaik.

Maulana Attiqur Rehman of Harkatul Mujahideen, Abdullah Nasir of Lashkar-i-Taiba, Maulana Ashfaq of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam and others also spoke.