A defiant show: ‘Muslim states should form own UN, build a military’

Jamatud Dawa holds rally on The Mall.

LAHORE:

Jamatud Dawa rallied on The Mall in front of Lahore High Court on Thursday to show solidarity with the Kashmiri people. The organisation has been proscribed by the federal government.

Earlier during the day, police removed JuD flags off streetlight poles on The Mall but later gave the JuD a go-ahead for the rally. They had planned to hold a rally from Nasser Bagh to the Punjab Assembly but the administration persuaded them not to hold a rally on The Mall, so they held a demonstration in front of the LHC. JuD chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed presided over the demonstration.

Addressing the protesters, Maulana Ameer Hamza said the government had tried to stop Hafiz Saeed from holding a rally on The Mall but could not stop him. “These rulers might regard themselves answerable to the United States, but Saeed only answers to Allah.”

The participants shouted slogans against India and America and called for Jihad.

Saeed said that the US had fixed a bounty on his head three years ago. “But no one can kill me if God doesn’t wish it.”

He said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif must call a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) in Islamabad to solve the Kashmir issue. “We are Kashmiris and Kashmir is ours. Our religion binds us as one nation and we will always continue to support our brothers oppressed by the vicious Indian armed forces in Kashmir,” he said.

Saeed said that the Indian foreign minister’s visit to China was a conspiracy against the independence of Kashmir. “India is prepared to accept all of China’s demands for its support in the United Nations against parties who raise their voice for the independence of Kashmir.”

Saeed said that China was Pakistan’s friend but the government of Pakistan should be chary in view of these conspiracies.

He said there was no room for back-channel diplomacy with India. “Pakistan is the most vocal advocate of the oppressed in Kashmir. It must boycott the United Nations if it doesn’t push to solve the Kashmir issue.”

He said Pakistan had fought wars for America and had allowed its forces to use its air space, airports and roads for 13 years. “Yet President Barack Obama declared India its main partner and friend in the region.”

He urged the government to strengthen ties with China and Muslims countries because China had never deceived Pakistan, unlike America. He said America had threatened Pakistan with surgical strikes but they would never dare do it.

Saeed also urged Muslim countries to form a separate United Nations that represented their interests and build a joint military. “America, India and Israel are enemies of Islam and are hatching conspiracies against Pakistan because they see its atomic arsenal as an Islamic atom bomb. Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Muhammad Arshad Sahi, Pir Muhammad Mahfooz Mashhadi, Tehrikul Mujahidin and Jihad Council of Jammu and Kashmir chief Sheikh Jamilur Rehman, and Abdullah Gul (Lt General (retd) Hameed Gul’s son) were among the speakers.

Hundreds of members of Jamaat-i-Islami also held a rally on The Mall.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 6^th, 2015.