Thousands of protestors on Saturday staged a huge rally on the city's main MA Jinnah Road to denounce the anti-Islam film. Protestors calmly proceeded from the Numaish Roundabout to the Tibet Centre where a number of religious figures belonging to the Jamaat Ahle Sunnat Pakistan addressed the procession. They also shouted anti-US slogans. Protesters dispersed peacefully.
Participants of the protest rally were carrying banners, placards and green flags and were reciting poetry in the honour of Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan permitted the rally, as the Sindh government had already banned public processions in the city by enforcing Section 144. Religious parties which took part in the rally were Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan, SRC, Sunni Tehreek, ANI, Fidayane Khatm-e-Nabuwat Pakistan and students of various religious seminaries.
Addressing the rally targeting the anti-Islam movie, Chief of Sunni Rehber Council (SRC) Mufti Muneebur Rehman urged the Western countries and the US that if they really wanted to end extremism from the world, they needed to carry out legislations to stop anti-Islam moves in their societies. He also urged the world community to end its dual standards. He also wanted the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) to represent the sentiments of Muslims of the world on blasphemy issue at global forums.
Mufti Muneebur Rehman appreciated President Asif Ali Zardari for raising the issue of anti-Islam movie at the UN general assembly session. However, he wanted the Pakistani government to make efforts for the unity of Islamic countries on the blasphemy issue. He said the Muslims' demand for criminalising blasphemy across the world was a just one. He said laws will protect Muslims from agony in future.
Chief of Sunni Tehreek Sarwart Ijaz Qadri praised the Federal Railways Minister, Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, for announcing a bounty to kill the anti-Islam film-maker. He said the Sunni Tehreek would support Bilour in the upcoming elections. He announced a Rs 50 million offer to the government to get Mumtaz Qadri released, saying Raymond Davis was also freed after US paid a hefty amount against the killing of Pakistanis.
Haji Hanif Tayyab and Owais Noorani demanded of the government to arrest and bring vandals who resorted to violence and mindless destruction across the city to justice. They said there were no terrorists in Pakistan, instead they were all in the US and Israel. They warned that no amendments will be tolerated to the blasphemy law in Pakistan. A number of other religious leaders also addressed the mammoth rally.
AFP adds: Thousands of people thronged the streets of Pakistan's biggest city of Karachi on Saturday in the latest protest against a US-made anti-Islam film, police and witnesses said. The protesters wore green and white headbands as they marched through the city's main M.A. Jinnah road while some trampled on the American flag.
They chanted slogans including "Hang the American film maker" and "We are ready to sacrifice our lives for the honour of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH)". "We strongly condemn this anti-Islam movie, it is a criminal act," Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman, a prominent religious leader told the rally, and called for a global ban on insulting "all prophets and messengers".
Police beefed up security before the rally, while paramilitary forces were also deployed. Pakistan experienced the worst of the violence last Friday when nation-wide rallies mobilised more than 45,000, many members of right-wing religious parties. At least 21 people were killed and 229 wounded, mainly in clashes with police.
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