KARACHI: A rally was taken out here on Sunday to condemn the assassination of Irania general Qassem Soleimani, his comrades and Iraqi Hashd al Shaabi commanders, including Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in a US airstrike near Baghdad airport on Friday.

The protesters urged the US Congress and judiciary to hold the Trump administration accountable for it and called for the United Nations Security Council to take punitive measures against the president. The protesters said they were not against the US citizens.

The rally organised by several religious parties was held amid tight security and closure of all major roads leading to the US consulate.

It ended peacefully on the Native’s Jetty bridge after marching on different routes.

A senior police officer said that some of the protesters tried to put “pressure” on the law enforcers to allow them to move towards the consulate but heavy contingents of the police and Rangers prevented them.

Urges Congress, judiciary to hold Trump administration accountable for the ‘unlawful’ action

The officer added that no clash took place but some protesters threw stones at the police and later dispersed peacefully. He added that due to this situation, the leaders of the organisers could not present their memorandum to the US diplomats, which they had announced earlier.

‘We all are Soleimani’

Earlier, the protesters, including women and children, gathered at Fawwara Chowk near Governor’s House.

They chanted slogans against the US and Israel, carried portraits inscribed with ‘We all are Soleimani’, and banners with slogans ‘Down with America’, etc.

Speaking at the rally near the Karachi Press Club, prominent religious scholar Allama Shahenshah Hussain Naqvi appreciated the ISPR statement that Pakistan land would not be used against the neighbouring country, Iran. However, he added that it was not “sufficient” and urged the Pakistani state, the government and the institutions to announce that they would not allow any nefarious designs to succeed against Iran as Pakistan is a “nuclear state” and it was a “requirement of honour”.

In his brief address, the religious leader also stated that the rally would go to a certain point from where “some personalities” would go to the US consulate, where they would present a memorandum.

The police sources said they had told the organisers that they could go up to the Native’s Jetty bridge, but they would not be allowed to move towards the US consulate located on Mai Kolachi Bypass,where heavy containers blocked the road.

After passing through I.I. Chundrigar Road, the protesters, travelling in four-wheelers and on two-wheelers, gathered on the bridge.

The rally was jointly organised by the Majlis-i-Wahdatul Muslimeen, Imamia Students Organisation, Jafaria Alliance, Tanzeem Azadari, Imamia Organisation, Shia Ulema Council and others.

On one occasion, it was also announced that the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl also supported the rally.

Allama Hasan Zafar Naqvi, Allama Ahmed Iqbal, Allama Baqar Zaidi, Allama Nazir Abbas Taqvi, Allama Mirza Yusuf Husain, Allama Amin Shaheedi, Allama Nisar Qalandar, Allama Sadiq Taqvi, Allama Mubashir Hasan, ISO Pakistan president Mohammed Abbas and others spoke to the protesters on the bridge.

They said that the slain Iranian general was a “successful symbol” of resistance against Israel and IS.

They warned that if Pakistan land was used against Iran, they would be compelled to target US interests and installations here.

Memorandum

A memorandum whose copy was shared with the media said that this peaceful rally was aimed at showing reaction to “illegal and unlawful” US attacks on sovereign nations, including Iraq.

It also recalled illegal US airstrikes that killed Pakistan army soldiers in Salala and other incidents and also referred to the Raymond Davis case in Lahore.

It said that before the US proxy war against the USSR in Afghanistan, there was no Al Qaida and prior to the US invasion of Iraq, there was no IS (Daesh) as the both outfits were products of “miscalculation” of western intelligence agencies.

It also pointed out that history was replete with unlawful US attacks that killed civilians in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, let alone military officials.

It has also been pointed out that the US airstrikes were unlawful and in violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.

Referring to the huge public rallies in Iraq and Iran during state funerals of the “martyrs”, the memorandum said that it showed that the people of Iraq and Iran “revere the victims of unlawful US airstrikes as their heroes”.

“This shows legitimacy of Iranian rule in Iraq and this shows legitimacy of Hashd al Shaabi, or Popular Mobilisation Forces of Iraq.”

It said that it was a incontrovertible fact that the US had imposed an illegal war on Iraq, which was also declared “illegal” by then UN secretary general Kofi Annan in 2004.

The protesters claimed that Qassem Soleimani and other persons were “formally invited by the Iraq government”.

The rally organisers also observed that “we don’t hate American people, but it is the US administration that perpetrated crimes against other nations, prompting them to react.”

“There is a history of US unlawful meddling in internal affairs of sovereign states and creating false justification to intervene and the post-9/11 threats to Pakistan also remain part of history.”

They urged the US Congress and judiciary to hold the perpetrators of these crimes accountable.

They appreciated those Americans who gathered outside the White House and demanded withdrawal of US troops.

They also appreciated those politicians and former officials who have opposed the Trump administration over this uncalled for and unjustifiable airstrike.

However, the rally urged the Americans not to allow this administration to violate sovereignty of other nations and assassinate officials and citizens of other nations on false excuses in their name.

Besides, the protesters also demanded that the UNSC must act and take punitive measures against the US administration.

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2020