ISLAMABAD, Sept 5: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) has announced that it would observe the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States as a protest day.

The six-party alliance said that it would stage rallies across Pakistan to condemn "American atrocities against Muslims all over the world." The MMA has decided to observe Sept 11 as a protest day to condemn the ongoing US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Israeli atrocities against Palestinian Muslims, said Mian Muhammad Aslam, MNA, the deputy chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, Punjab.

He was addressing the JI workers here on Sunday. He said that the MMA would show its solidarity with the people of Indian-held Kashmir, Palestine and Iraq. On that day, a protest demonstration will be held at Aabpara Chowk in Islamabad and opposition leader Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman will address the participants, he announced.

He said that US had used 9/11 as a pretext to invade Muslim countries. The MMA "condemns all forms of terrorism, including state terrorism," he said. He said Pakistan was facing many internal and external pressures but the military leadership had been unable to tackle them.

"The best way to defuse these pressures is by allowing parliament and the judiciary to work without interference," he said. He added that religious forces would not allow the country to be secularized. -PPI