Thousands of religious activists hit the streets of the country on Friday, demanding jihad and torching US flags to condemn a $10 million bounty slapped on the founder of militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The Defence Council of Pakistan, an alliance of right-wing, religious and extremist groups, organised the rallies to denounce the US move against Hafiz Saeed, who established the LeT group blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The day’s largest demonstration came in Lahore, a stronghold of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the charity seen as a front for LeT.
Up to 2,000 rallied in the city, shouting “America deserves one treatment: Jihad! Jihad! (holy war).” Protests were also staged in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Multan and in Muzaffarabad.
In Muzaffarabad, around 500 activists shouted “jihad! jihad!” as they marched on the city and set fire to a US flag in a main square.
Speakers urged President Asif Ali Zardari to cancel a visit to India on Sunday — the first by a Pakistani head of state since 2005 — and demanded an American apology for the bounty. “Such steps are forcing Muslims towards guns,” said Abdul Aziz Alvi, the local head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which is blacklisted by the United Nations and United States, along with LeT. In Islamabad and Rawalpindi, activists of Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Jamaat-e-Islami shouted anti-American and anti-Indian slogans. In Rawalpindi, around 150 activists set fire to an American flag, crying “death to America” after Friday prayers, while in the capital, the same number gathered outside the national press club and shouted “Al-Jihad and we stand by Hafiz Saeed”.
Hundreds of Jamaat-ud-Dawa supporters rallied in Karachi. They waved black-and-white flags and banners inscribed with anti-US and anti-India slogans.
