Following in the footsteps of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the All Pakistan Muslim League and Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s faction of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, it was the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC)’s turn to hold a public gathering in Karachi on Sunday.
Police blocked the MA Jinnah Road and the usual activity – via public buses, rickshaws, motorcycles and other vehicles – was lacking on one of the metropolitan’s most significant roads.
At the Numaish Chowrangi, many stalls had been set up by different religious parties, many of which are carrying out their activities under new names after they were banned by the Pakistani government.
The roundabout was “decorated” with flags and banners of the 40 political and religious parties that form the DPC coalition – which has been vociferously demanding the government to keep the NATO supply routes closed, withdraw its decision to grant India the status of the Most Favoured Nation and to make arrangements for the release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui.
One look outside the main ground of the public gathering made one remind of being at a festival where traders set up makeshift shops to sell different products.
While Sindh is internationally recognised for holding attractive festivals and public gatherings at the shrines of Sufi saints, the festival outside the mausoleum of Pakistan’s founder Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was of a different nature.
In traditional Sindhi festivals at saints’ shrines, vendors usually sell toys, bangles, sweets, and even axes and sickles.
However, at the festival held in Sindh’s capital on Sunday, the products on sale were entirely different and were apparently being sold keeping in mind the participants of the DPC gathering.
A bearded man was selling “export-quality” miswak acquired from the indigenous trees and wrapped in special paper, whereas another was selling taqiyahs (short, rounded caps worn by some observant Muslim men).
A man put on display “alcohol-free Islamic” attar (natural perfume oil derived from botanical sources), whereas a young man beckoned passers-by to sell them army jackets, attracting many whom jihad interests.
Some vendors put on sale posters of young men carrying rocket launchers and apparently getting ready to attack, while others were offering stickers and badges bearing slogans of different religious organisations.
A man was selling key chains of replica rifles and other miniature versions of menacing-looking guns.
Another man had set up a stall selling CDs packed in simple wrappers and handwritten titles revealing the contents of the disks.
‘Jihadi Taraanay (Jihadi Anthems)’, ‘Modern Training of Jihad’, ‘Suicidal Attacks by Lashkar-e-Taiba’, ‘Jihad in Afghanistan by Jundullah’ and other “interesting” titles “adorned” these CDs.
While the Crime Investigation Department often organises press conferences and proudly claims recovering jihadi materials, including literature and CDs, of banned religious organisations, these jihadi products were openly available for the participants of the DPC gathering.
SECURITY: Strict security arrangements were made by volunteers belonging to different religious parties that are part of the DPC.
With their flags raised high, horse-mounted volunteers kept their eye on everyone in their sight, as their horses strutted around the gathering’s venue.
Special walkthrough gates were installed on the main entrance of the venue of the gathering and everyone was checked thoroughly before being allowed to enter.
Volunteers carrying weapons were keeping surveillance from over 20 watchtowers erected all around the ground.
Rally of JIHADIS, by JIHADIS, for JIHADIS
