KARACHI, March 23: Assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin on Monday in a terrorist attack by the Israeli forces in Gaza City drew a sharp reaction from people representing all walks of life.

People described the act as a prelude to much greater threat to peace and stability. They criticized attitude of the Zionist entity's principal supporter - the United States - and termed its call for restraint in the Middle East 'another ploy to protect its protege'.

People also deplored Israeli press for justifying the assassination of Shaikh Yassin. Ghaibana Namaz-i-Janaza for the martyred Palestinian leader was offered at Arambagh where thousands of people deplored Israel's brutality.

Addressing the congregation, secretary general of Jamaat-i-Islami Syed Munawwar Hassan said the assassination called for a more resolute defiance of the forces of international terrorism and oppression.

Referring to the reaction from Germany, France, Britain and other EU countries, he said that the reaction from the US appeared detrimental to the interests of Muslims. He regretted that despite such policies of Washington, our leaders were toeing the line of Uncle Sam.

People are not only resentful of the US and Israeli policies, but also of the rulers who had aligned with them, he remarked. The JI leader said that jihad was a sacred obligation of every Muslim but Pakistan's military was being used to obstruct that path, and freedom fighters were being dubbed as terrorists to win the enemies' friendship.

He said that on the one hand, the government was extending the hand of friendship to Mr Vajpayee, but on the other, innocent people were being gunned down in Wana. He regretted that Pakistan army had been forced to kill its own people.

He declared that the people would never accept the American over lordship. Mr Hassan said that Shaikh Yassin had risen above Arab nationalism and had shown to the Muslims the way of struggle and resistance.

He asked people to be prepared for even greater tragedies if they failed to challenge the leaders who were serving their foreign masters. Dr Mairajul Huda Siddiqui, while condemning the assassination, asked: "why the killers of Muslims are not being termed and regarded as terrorists?"

Senior politician Meraj Mohammad Khan condemned the 'targeted killing' as blatant state terrorism, and maintained that it would result in great outrage and stiffer resistance by Palestinian people. The assassination would spur their just struggle for an independent state, he added.

Mr Khan said the owing to the Sharon government's terrorist act, the peace process, for which the Palestinian Authority had extended major concessions, was in danger and Israel should be held responsible for the development.

Mian Raza Rabbani, PPP's deputy secretary general, said "this is a crude attempt by the Zionists to crush the Palestinian resistance and further the Israeli expansionist designs. But they forget the lesson of history that a just struggle by oppressed peoples always ends in victory."

He was of the view that the assassination by the Zionist entity would lead to an escalation of tension in the region and derail the peace process in the Middle East. "Such acts of violence would breed more violence and the region would become germination ground for extremists."

Mr Rabbani said the violent attack had no sanction under international law, and the West should have taken note of the gross violations of human rights being committed by Israel for long.

"This act of state terrorism enunciates a very dangerous precedent whereby states are free to target any person or persons they seek to target with no consideration of law." He said the people of Pakistan did not support terrorism, but drew a clear distinction between it and freedom struggles.

ISO: The Imamia Students Organization also staged a protest outside the Karachi Press Club. The ISO leaders alleged that Shaikh Yassin's assassination had the approval by US.