Muzaffarabad, Apr 6: Kashmiri migrants and activists of several religious organisations staged a rally on Friday to condemn the announcement of $10 million bounty by the United States on the head of Jamaat ud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed.
 “Hafiz Saeed move ahead, we are with you,” shouted the participants as they paraded through the capital’s main thoroughfare, from Press Club to the Garhi Pan Chowk.
 Participants of the rally were holding several banners and placards as well as flags of JuD and another religious outfit.
 “Hafiz Saeed is not a terrorist but a mujahid-e-millat (freedom fighter of the nation),” read one of the banners.
 At a bustling roundabout, the participants laid a US flag on the road and treaded on it, before setting it on fire amid anti-US chants.
 Earlier, leaders from different groups delivered fiery speeches, condemning the US for “taking this decision under Indian pressure.”
 “The US is pleasing India…It’s not the issue of Hafiz Saeed but of the entire Muslim Ummah and if we don’t rise to the occasion today it can happen to many others tomorrow,” warned Asghar Rasool, a commander of Hizbul Mujahideen.
 Mushtaq ul Islam, a leader of Peoples Conference, assured Saeed “from the soil of Kashmir” that the Kashmiris stood by his side.
 “You are not a terrorist, you are the voice of Muslim Ummah. You are our hero,” Islam said.
 A refugee leader Uzair Ghizali recalled that Saeed had nurtured the freedom struggle in Kashmir even in the most adverse situations.
 “The US should have placed bounties on the heads of those who have massacred thousands of freedom seeking Kashmiris,” he demanded.
 JuD PaK chapter ameer Abdul Aziz Alvi said Saeed had been lending support to the just cause of oppressed Kashmiris and if he was a terrorist then every individual in Kashmir was also a terrorist.
 Prominent among around a dozen other speakers were refugee leader Raja Izhar Khan, trader leader Abdul Razzaq Khan, Muslim Conference leader Raja Saqib Majeed and Jamaat-i-Islami leader Qazi Shahid Hameed.
 Participants also shouted slogans for release of Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the top commander of the proscribed Lashkar e Taiba (LeT) outfit, linked with the JuD, who was arrested by the Pakistani authorities from Muzaffarabad in December 2008.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 6 Apr 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 6 Apr 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 7 Apr 2012 00:00:00 IST