Hundreds of activists of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) came out on the streets on Friday to protest the direct United States action that killed Osama Bin Laden, terming it a clear violation of international law. The protest, the first of its kind since the May 2 US operation, here in the town was organised by the JI. The rally was addressed by JI provincial chief Professor Ibrahim Khan and local JI leaders. The protesters, said to be in the hundreds, marched through the streets chanting slogans against the US, the Pakistan government and the security establishment.
The first Friday since the operation was expected to bring a large number of people out onto the streets in the military garrison town of Abbottabad, where major markets were closed as Friday is a holiday in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, but participation in the protests was not as high as expected.
Adressing the rally, Khan asked the political and military leadership to come forward and explain to the people why it did not react when US helicopters were conducting the operation in Abbottabad, calling it a “criminal silence”.
“If they were not informed then how did the US helicopters return so easily after conducting the operation? They are responsible and should face the masses,” he stated. Khan slammed the inability of the Pakistani military to prevent the operation and its silence about it. He criticised the US for violating international law and taking action in a sovereign country. He said the US president had lied to the world and his people, because if he had proof of bin Laden’s death he should have at least shared it with the American media.
He also criticised President Asif Ali Zardari for saying bin Laden had killed his wife and said the reality was different: Zardari had already announced that he knew the killers of Benazir Bhutto. Mocking Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Khan said he did not fulfil his duty. “When they attacked, you were sleeping. on’t be afraid of America, come out of your air-conditioned room,” he said. JI Abbottabad chief Saeed Ahmad Abbasi told the rally that Gen Kayani should come up with a clear stance on the issue.
Khaksar Chaudhry Farooq, provincial chief of the group, said bin Laden was not here but brought to this town and under a conspiracy to show the world that Pakistan was an incompetent, terrorist country. JI workers also held protests in Peshawar, where they held banners and party flags and shouted slogans against the US and Pakistani rulers and in favour of bin Laden. The protesters marched to Chock Yadgar from Mahabat Khan Mosque. JI leaders criticised Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s statement expressing happiness over the death of bin Laden and supporting the US operation.
Yousef Qureshi, a pro-Taliban cleric and imam of Mahabbat Khan Mosque, said that bin Laden was the “leader of all Muslims” and his ideology would continue until the US and Israel were destroyed.
In Karachi, just 500 of the estimated 16 million residents staged a rally to praise bin Laden as “a soldier of Islam”, chanting “Down with America” and “Down with US slaves”, AFP reported. “We salute him. We also salute the Taliban who are fighting in Afghanistan and hope the US will be defeated in Afghanistan,” said the Karachi head of JI, Mohammad Hussain Mehanti. Hundreds of people gathered in Quetta at the behest of the pro-Taliban Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), where the crowd shouted “Long Live Osama”, called for jihad and burnt a US flag.
The JI had called for protests across the country on Friday to denounce the US operation. A 300-strong rally was held in Multan, while in the northwestern city of Peshawar some 400 people shouted “Death to America”, “Death to Pakistani rulers” and “Long Live Osama”.
