PESHAWAR, May 10: The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F) here on Friday staged a protest demonstration to condemn the US and Pakistani forces’ joint raid on Deeni Madaris in Miran Shah, the headquarters of North Waziristan agency.

The rally participants warned the government against the possible US-led coalition forces operation against the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in the tribal areas and said that further raids on the seminaries could lead to political turmoil in the country.

The protest demo was started from the historical Qasim Ali Khan mosque which, after marching through Qisa Khawani bazaar, turned into a public meeting in front of the Kabuli police station where leaders of JUI (F) and Jamaat-i-Islami addressed about 300 participants.

Criticising the Musharraf government’s policy, leaders of the religious parties said that raids on seminaries were like an attack on Islam as there was no justification to invade a place where children learnt Quran.

“There are no terrorists in Deeni Madaris. The Musharraf government, under pressure from the western countries, wants to present a negative picture of Islam and Islamic education,” they charged.

Even the British rulers did not carry out raids on Deeni Madaris during their stay in the subcontinent as they knew the importance of respecting others’ religious sentiments, they said. “Unfortunately, a ruler of an Islamic country is guiding the non-Muslims to desecrate the sacred places of Muslims.”

Amidst the full-throated anti-Musarraf and anti-US slogans, the speakers said that Taliban and Osama bin Laden were not the terrorists, instead they restored complete peace to Afghanistan as before them several thousand Afghans had been killed in factional fighting.

But the western countries punished Taliban for that peace and now they were creating the law and order problem in Pakistan, they claimed.

Through a unanimous resolution, the leaders condemned arrest of the religious parties’ activists across the country. They also criticized Musharraf for his statement issued in favour of Zafran Bibi against whom the court awarded stoning to death punishment. They claimed that the statement amounted to contempt of court.

Those who spoke on the occasion included JUI (F) provincial amir Maulana Amanullah, JI provincial chief Professor Mohammad Ibrahim, Hakim Abdul Jalil, Maulana Fazl-e-Maula, Haji Ahsan-ul- Haq, Maulana Abdul Malik, Hussain Ahmad Madani, Maulana Abdur Rauf, Maulana Shams-ul-Haq and Ubedur Rehman.