PESHAWAR, Oct 19: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad here on Friday urged people to change the government if it does not review its Afghan policy.

“ The Jamaat’s objective is to overthrow the present government as it is siding with America,” he said, while addressing paricipants in a big procession at the Soekarno Square, Khyber Bazaar, here.

Thousands of JI workers, carrying party flags and chanting anti-government slogans, marched on the city roads. They, however, remained peaceful.

The JI had earlier planned to hold a meeting in the Jinnah Park, but the local administration did not allow it to do so. The party has decided to hold a public meeting in the Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi, on Oct 21.

The Qazi warned the government that the Jamaat movement to remove it would continue so long as it did not change its Afghan policy.

He asked the people to fight against imperialists’ agents who justified the US aggression on Afghanistan. He appealed to the people to boycott US goods and donate to the Jamaat’s Jihad fund.

The JI chief said that the entire world was protesting against the US attack on Afghanistan but the Organization of Islamic Conference had supported it.

He said that while the Jamaat would run a peaceful movement against the government it would not provide any opportunity to the enemy to create disturbance and destabilise Pakistan.

Criticizing western countries for their anti-Muslim policy, the JI chief said that only Muslims were being victimised on the pretext of launching war against terrorism. The so-called civilised world, he observed, was not taking notice of atrocities being committed by Indian troops in Kashmir, massacre of Palestinians and killings of civilians in Afghanistan.

“ The international community must differentiate between terrorism and freedom struggle. America and European countries are piling up nuclear, biological and chemical weapons to crush innocent people,” he said, adding that, despite this, they were doomed to fail”, he added.

The Qazi said the US had planned to destroy Afghanistan completely and then bring back former king Zahir Shah through the traditional Loya Jirga. He clarified that the Jamaat would recognize the Loya Jirga if it was convened by Mulla Mohammad Omar, the supreme leader of the Taliban.

He criticized Afghanistan’s former president, Prof Burhanuddin Rabbani,and leaders of the Northern Alliance for supporting the US against the Taliban.