KARACHI, Nov 9: Religious leaders at different rallies after Juma prayers said the people by observing a successful strike expressed their resentment over the government’s Afghan policy.

Addressing a major rally at Aram Bagh Mosque, organized by Pak-Afghan Defence Council, Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai said: “staging a protest against the supremacy of the United States is our religious obligation and we are clearly opposed to the Afghan policy of the government.”

He said the people of the country had extended support to their Afghan brethren and they were opposed to the military action against Afghanistan.

He said the government had not heeded to the majority public opinion. A future line of action would be devised if the government did not change its Afghan policy, he said.

PADC secretary general Liaquat Baloch said the people, by observing complete strike, had expressed their anger over the US- led coalition’s aggression against Afghanistan and the anti-Islam Afghan policy adopted by President Pervez Musharraf.

He said the Musharraf government did not have moral courage to resign but interior minister Moinuddin Haider and Governor Punjab Khalid Maqbool should step down immediately.

He maintained that the toppling of Taliban and establishment of a broad-based government in Afghanistan was a dangerous game. After having failed in military and political operations, the US- led coalition was now hatching a conspiracy to divide Afghanistan. Pakistan’s future would also be in danger as its division would be on the card of the western countries, he feared.

He said the arrest of Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Maulana Azam Tariq was an outcome of the government’s oppressive and fascist approach. He said the arrests and framing of treason cases against the leaders would only malign the government’s reputation in the country.

Qari Sher Afzal of JUI said the sympathies of the people were with the Afghans and the government’s action could not force the masses to detach themselves from the people of Afghanistan.

Haji Abdul Qayyum of JUI, who has returned from Kandahar, read out a message of the governor of Kandahar stating that the Jihad would continue till the last member of the Taliban existed.

Fazal Mohammad, Hafiz Taqi Mohammad, Maulana Abdul Karim Abid, Hashim Siddiqui, Mushtaq Mirza and others also spoke.

Another rally was organized at Banaras Chowk, where leaders of different religious parties condemned the attack on Afghanistan and criticized the government for extending support to the US-led coalition. They asked the government to review its Afghan policy and mould it in accordance with the aspirations of the people.