KARACHI, Aug 3: The Jamaat-i-Islami has called upon the United Nations to hold a referendum in the Arakan region of Myanmar on the pattern of Southern Sudan and East Timor.

The demand was made at a rally organised by the Karachi chapter of the JI on the appeal of JI chief Syed Munawar Hasan in protest against the reported genocide of Muslims in Myanmar.

The participants in the rally, which was held after the Friday prayers outside the Jamia Mosque Binnori Town, were holding banners and placards inscribed with slogans “stop massacre of Muslims of Burma”, “why the UN and the media is keeping mum over the genocide of Muslims in Burma”, etc.

Speakers at the rally condemned what they described as “double standards of world powers, the media and the UN over their criminal silence on the atrocities against the Muslims in Burma”.

They urged the Pakistani government to summon the Myanmar ambassador and lodge a strong protest against the killings.

Speaking to the participants in the rally, Karachi JI chief Mohammad Hussain Mehanti said that over the past two months Muslims in Myanmar were facing mass killings and so far over 20,000 Muslims were massacred. However, he claimed that there was no institution in the world which had raised its voice against the atrocities committed against the Muslims.

He demanded that the Pakistani government summon the Myanmar ambassador and demand that the massacre was stopped and if the genocide did not stop, the ambassador be declared persona non grata and expelled from the country.

He also appealed to Muslim countries and political parties to organise protest rallies against the atrocities and express solidarity with Muslims in Myanmar.