KARACHI: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) is all set to host what it says will be the “biggest march in the country’s history” in Karachi today, to protest against United States’ recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The ‘Al-Quds’ march is intended to express solidarity with Palestinians and protest against US President Donald Trump’s recent decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
JI chief Sirajul Haq earlier said the march, which is scheduled to take place on University Road, would be the country’s biggest ever.
Earlier this month, JI had announced to hold countrywide protests over Jerusalem, with Sirajul Haq terming Trump’s decision as “adding fuel to the fire.”
He said that Trump has put global peace in danger.
Following US’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a fresh wave of violence had erupted on the Gaza Strip border. At least four Palestinians were shot dead and 150 others wounded by Israeli troops over the weekend.
Most of the casualties were on the Gaza Strip border, where thousands of Palestinians gathered to protest against Israeli soldiers beyond the fortified fence. Medics said the dead included a wheelchair-bound Palestinian.
In the occupied West Bank, another area where Palestinians are seeking statehood along with adjacent East Jerusalem, medics said two protesters were killed and 10 wounded by Israeli gunfire.
Palestinians and the wider Arab and Muslim world were outraged at Trump’s December 6 announcement, which reversed decades of US policy reticence on Jerusalem, a city over which both Israel and the Palestinians want sovereignty.
Washington’s European allies and Russia have also voiced worries about Trump’s decision.
