ISLAMABAD, Feb 5: Thousands of people on Sunday participated in rallies, attended conferences and formed human chain to express solidarity with the Kashmiris involved in freedom struggle.

The events had jointly been organized by religious parties and organizations including Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) and Jammatud Dawa.

The participants raised various national and international issues on the occasion. They called for severing ties with countries where blasphemous cartoons were published. An attack on Iran will be deemed as an attack on the Muslim world, they added.

The participants also pledged to continue helping their Kashmiri brothers until the last man from the occupation forces was withdrawn from the held valley. They demanded immediate end to the operation in Balochistan and Waziristan.

Those who spoke on the occasion included Syed Munawar Hassan, Hafiz Abdur Rehman, Siddiqul Farooque, MNA Mian Aslam, Ijaz Afzal, Malik Abdullah, Maulana Nazir Farooqi, Maulana Abdul Haleem Qasmi, Mohammad Ashfaq and others.

Jamaat-i-Islami Secretary-General Syed Munawar Hassan came hard on the rulers whom he accused of befriending India and leaving Kashmiris to themselves. It is for the sake of this friendship that Kashmiri freedom fighters are dubbed as terrorists, he said.

Mr Hassan also mentioned Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Palestine and other places where freedom fighters had been rendering sacrifices for their rights and freedom.

“The establishment of this heavy military force was not meant to launch operations against their own people. It was aimed at defending the frontiers,” he said.

Hafiz Abdur Rehman of Jamaatud Dawa also vowed that they would always support Kashmiris. He said demilitarization, self- governance and other proposals were neither acceptable to the people of Kashmir nor Pakistan.

He questioned Gen Musharraf’s alliance and friendship with the West, saying that through a planned conspiracy all these countries had been resorting to the evil act of blasphemy arousing the sentiments of the Muslim world. Time has come to develop unity among the Muslim countries, strengthen OIC and respond in a befitting manner to this blasphemous act, he added.

PML-N Information Secretary Siddiqul Farooque said unity, faith and discipline was the slogan of only low-ranked armymen; and senior officials did not believe in it. He accused Gen Musharraf of safeguarding and promoting the interests of Israel and US President George W. Bush.

MNA Mian Aslam said the victory of Hamas in the recent Palestinian elections was a vote against President Bush and his allies in the West, Middle East and Asia which, he added, had been resorting to terrorism and killing innocent people.