KARACHI, Feb 18: Hundreds of activists of the Islami Jamiat Talaba on Saturday marched on the MA Jinnah Road up to the Merewether Tower in protest against blasphemous cartoons published in European newspapers.

Wearing shrouds, holding banners inscribed with pledges to sacrifice all they had for protection of Prophet Muhammad’s (SAW) sanctity, the students, from various educational institutions, peacefully rallied in a ‘shroud-wearing (kafan-posh) IJT rally’ amid tight security.

Students burned flags of the European countries whose newspapers had published caricatures, and slammed the Pakistani government for not heeding to calls of people to sever diplomatic and trade ties with responsible states.

Addressing the procession, the Amir Jamaat-i-Islami Karachi, Merajul Huda Siddiqui, warned the government to refrain from holding back enraged rallies.

He said orthodox Muslim men and women and their liberal counterparts all had come out to condemn the defamation of their beloved Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

The United States had plundered Afghanistan and Iraq, and now the EU had adopted blasphemous tactics to hurt Muslims, he added, citing the publication and republication of caricatures by different EU newspapers.

He said the EU had threatened that any action against Denmark, where the controversial caricatures first appeared, would be treated as an assault on the 25-member European coalition.

This was being done in “complete violation of the United Nation charters on human rights”, he added.

Condemning the government for not coming out in protest, he cautioned against underestimating the anguish and fury of people on the issue.

The protestors vowed to boycott the EU and US manufactured products in condemnation of blasphemous depiction of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). They disbursed peacefully afterwards.—PPI