KARACHI, Jan 18: The Jamaat-i-Islami on Sunday afternoon led a massive ‘Palestine march’ from the mausoleum of the Quaid-i-Azam to Tibet Centre to express solidarity with the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas against the brutality perpetrated by Israel in Gaza.

Addressing the participants of the march, Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad said the Hamas “mujahideen” had destroyed the pride of Israel which had “conceded its defeat” by announcing a ceasefire, while Hamas had vowed to continue their struggle until the liberation of Al-Quds and opening of the border crossing at Rafah and sea routes, as the right to resist had been given to them by the United Nations charter.

The United States, Britain, the world community and the UN had exposed their double standards over Israeli terrorism and also unveiled the real faces of Muslim rulers, who had turned the entire Muslim world into a prison, and had become its wardens by dancing to the US tunes, he added.

The JI chief said the arms with Muslim rulers were a trust of the Ummah and now, when the Muslims were being massacred by foreign powers, these arms, too, were being used against the Muslims.

Announcing that the JI would send a doctors’ team to Gaza, Mr Ahmed demanded that the Pakistan government not only send arms and army-men to Gaza for assistance of Palestinian people, but also allow the people of Pakistan to go to Palestine to fight Israeli terrorists.

He asked that if Israel could not defeat the 1.5 million Palestinians, which power on earth could defeat the 1.5 billion-strong Muslim Ummah.

“The entire world has erupted into protest against the savagery of Israel, but our rulers have become insensitive and instead of representing the Ummah are playing the role of US agents,” he said.

The JI chief termed the British-trained army as the root-cause of all problems of the Ummah which, instead of fighting the war of the people, was fighting for the US.

“The Pakistan government and the army, instead of representing the aspirations of the people, had been overawed by Indian threats and instead of responding to Indian threats are spilling the blood of its own tribal people in Bajaur, Mohmand Agency and Waziristan. They must be ashamed of blood-letting of their own brothers to please the US.

“If today our rulers leave

the US alliance, give up

luxuries, join the rank and file and support Jihad, there would be no incident of terrorism in the country”, the JI chief observed.

Qazi Hussain Ahmad called upon the government to break its alliance with the US and Britain and establish an atmosphere of national cohesion and solidarity to meet the various challenges.

He warned India not to commit aggression against “Pakistan as it is the country of mujahideen and ghazis”.

He said the people of Karachi deserved praise as they always took to the streets in support of the Ummah.

On the occasion, Israeli and American flags, along with effigies of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, were burnt. Besides local leaders of a few other parties, the participants of the rally were addressed by Syed Munawwar Hasan and Mohammad Hussain Mehnati.

The participants also raised slogans of ‘down with Israel’, ‘down with America’ and ‘Al-Jihad, Al-Jihad’.