KARACHI - With raising the slogan of ‘United Against Taliban’, Muttahida Qaumi Movement on Friday hold National Solidarity Rally from Numaish Chowrangi to Tibet Centre to express solidarity with the families of Peshawar school attack martyrs and the Pakistan armed forces.
Thousands of people from all walks of life including a large number of women and children holding national flags, placards and banners inscribed with slogans ‘We are united against Taliban’, ‘Taliban are barbarians’, ‘A devil is devil, it’s neither good or bad’, and others participated in the rally.
This was MQM’s third rally in the year in support of the armed forces. The first was staged in February and another in July to express solidarity with the armed forces in the war against terror.
Addressing the rally, MQM chief Altaf Hussain paid homage to the martyrs of the Peshawar attack and the Pakistan armed forces. He said Islam means peace and it never supports extremism. The people killing the innocents in the name of Islam cannot be called Muslims, he added. He said Maulana Abdul Aziz of Lal Masjid in his statement said that Peshawar incident was the reaction of bombing by armed forces. He should be arrested immediately, Altaf demanded. He further said Jamia Hafsa students, on social media, had extended support to the Daish. “I also demand action against them and demand to close down Jamia Hafsa.”
Altaf urged Pakistan Army to demolish Lal Masjid because they claimed their association with Daish and justified the killing of innocent Pakistanis.
Referring from Quran-e-Pak, he said Taliban and Daish who called them the heads of Islam were the real ‘Munafiq’. Terming the Lal Masjid a symbol of Masjid Zarrar, Altaf asked the Pakistan Army head to destroy it. Some of the religious parties were teaching the seminaries’ students that “Shia is kafir (infidel)” and who do not agree with it is also Kafir. “We do not have the authority to declare anyone Kafir,” he said.