HYDERABAD, May 8: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal staged a rally outside the press club here on Saturday to condemn the massacre of people in a Karachi mosque and the demolition of the General Post Office mosque in Hyderabad.

Speaking on the occasion, Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan senior vice- president MNA Abul Khair Mohammad Zubair said that federal and Sindh governments had failed in enforcing the rule of law. In Sindh, terrorist activities and other crimes had increased, he added.

He alleged that the rulers could not tolerate the existence of the MMA and that was the reason that bombs were being exploded in Quetta and Karachi.

The MMA leader said that the adviser to the Sindh chief minister on home affairs, Aftab Ahmad Shaikh, should resign as he had failed to fulfil his responsibility of maintaining peace and order in the province.

He blamed US agents for the Karachi carnage.

Mr Zubair warned that if no action was taken against officials responsible for the demolition of the Hyderabad GPO mosque, the MMA would resort to a 'direct action'.

District MMA president Abdul Waheed Qureshi alleged that terrorists were a part of the Sindh government. He said that the Karachi city Nazim was making efforts to maintain peace and harmony in Karachi but the terrorists were destroying the peace.

He said that people had come to understand conspiracies of US agents. Shias and Sunnis in Pakistan were jointly fighting against anti-Islam conspiracies as they were doing in Iraq, he added.

People's Party Parliamentarians MPA Zahid Bhurgari, who also participated in the rally, held the Sindh government responsible for the mosque carnage.

He said that the government had failed to curb terrorist activities in urban areas and robberies and kidnappings in rural areas of Sindh.

He said that sectarian tension had totally disappeared in Pakistan and it were the vested interests who were trying to destroy the peaceful atmosphere in the country.

MPA Abdur Rehman Rajput also criticized the adviser on home affairs for failing to maintain law and order in the province.

The others who spoke on the occasion included Islami Tehrik leaders Kazim Shah Naqvi and Nizamul Haideri, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F leaders Maulana Taj Mohammad Nahyoon, Qari Kamran and Azam Jehangiri and JUI-S leader Dr Saifur Rehman.

Meanwhile, a condolence meeting was held at the Alamdar building here under the chairmanship of Allama Altaf Hussain Al-Hussaini to mourn the deaths of the bomb blast victims.

Allama Syed Sajid Ali Naqvi's message was also read at the meeting.

The Sheean-i-Haider-i-Karrar and the Imamia Students Organization also staged a joint rally outside the press club here and burnt tyres to protest against the carnage.

Speaking on the occasion, ISO president Ghazanfar Abbas said that the conspiracy of enemies of Islam to engineer Sunni-Shia riots had failed. He said thousands of Sunnis had donated blood to save the lives of the injured in Karachi.

Youths also burnt tyres and blocked roads in different areas to protest against the incident.

The protesters also marched through the Masan Road, Allah Wala Chowk and the Timber Market. Shops remained closed on the occasion.