KARACHI, Aug 17: A rally was taken out here on Friday on M.A. Jinnah Road to mark International Al Quds Day despite the bomb explosion on main University road that hit a bus, which was carrying participants in the rally.

Two people were killed and 18 others wounded in the explosion.

The Al Quds rally in which women and children also took part was taken out under the aegis of Tehreek-i-Azadia Al Quds of the Imamia Students Organisation (ISO), Karachi.

The participants in the rally expressed their solidarity with Palestinian brethren and said that Palestinians were struggling against the illegal occupation of their land by Israel.

The participants were holding placards and banners inscribed with slogans against alleged American and Israeli aggression and waving flags of Hezbollah and Hamas.

They were also carrying portraits of Ayatollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Syed Ali Khamenei and Hezbollah leader Syed Hassan Nasrallah.

The participants marched on M.A. Jinnah Road from the Numaish traffic intersection to Tibet Centre to lodge their protest against “US-backed Israeli oppression against Palestinians”.

Speaking to participants in the rally at the Tibet Centre, Majlis-i-Wahdat Muslimeen central leader Maulana Mirza Yousuf Hussain, ISO Pakistan president Athar Imran, Maulana Baqar Zaidi, Allama Amin Shaheedi, Allama Qazi Ahmed Noorani Siddiqui and others said that observing Al Quds Day was a referendum against Israel.

Condemning the attack on the bus carrying Al Quds rally participants, they described it as a “conspiracy of the Zionist regime”.