MUZAFFARABAD, Oct 5: The workers of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Azad Kashmir on Friday took out a procession to condemn the inclusion of Harkatul Mujahideen and Al Rasheed Trust (ART) in the list of those identified by the United States as linked to terrorism.

The participants included students of a madressah run by the JUI. They kept on shouting slogans against the US and India, and in support of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden all along their march through different streets of Muzaffarabad.

Harkat and ART were among 15 groups and 12 individuals linked by the Bush administration on Sept 13 to terrorism. The US froze the bank accounts and assets of these groups.

“We reject the ban on Harkat and Al Rasheed Trust. This action is part of US designs to damage the Muslims elsewhere,” said AJK JUI chief Qari Abdul Malik as the procession turned into a public meeting on the Bank Road, suspending the vehicular traffic for over an hour.

“When 6,000 people are killed in the US, it is terrorism. But, when thousands are killed in held Kashmir and Palestine, why it is not terrorism?” he said, adding “this duplicity of the US reflected its biased approach towards Muslims and warranted for collective steps on part of Ummat to counter it.”

Qari Malik appealed to the government of Pakistan to restore the bank accounts of the two organizations.

The senior vice-president of JUI, Mahmoodul Hassan Ashraf, said the US should not be allowed to take the revenge on Islam for the Sept 11 attacks.

He condemned Delhi for launching propaganda against Islamabad and made it clear that the people of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir would shed the last drop of their blood for the integrity and security of their motherland.

Later, the JUI activists torched the American and Indian flags.