Students vow to defend Pakistan against any aggression
Islamabad, (ANTARA News/AFP) - Some 2,000 students vowed on Wednesday to
defend Pakistan against any aggression amid growing tensions with India over last week's attacks in Mumbai.
Participants of the "Defence of Pakistan" rally, staged by students from Islami Jamiat-e-Tulaba in front of the parliament building, chanted slogans against the United States, India and Israel.
The bearded youths carrying blue, red and green party flags shouted: "Those who befriend America are traitors"; "God is greater" and "Jihad (holy war) is the answer to US and Indian conspiracies".
Zubair Safdar, an IJT leader, claimed that India orchestrated the Mumbai attacks as a means of waging war on Pakistan but said the youths of the country would not allow their neighbour to hatch this conspiracy.
"India wants to occupy Pakistan on the pretext of the Mumbai attacks. Our students will defeat this conspiracy by India, America and Israel," he said.
"The US is behind all the terrorism in the world and now backing India destroy Pakistan," IJT president Attiqur Rehman told the rally.
IJT is the youth wing of the fundamentalist Jamaat-i-Islami party which opposes Pakistan's military operation against Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants in the northwestern tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
"The government should end military operations in tribal areas and deploy troops along the border with India," he added.
The students later torched US, Indian and Israeli flags as riot police surrounded the high-security zone of Islamabad.
India has blamed "elements" in Pakistan for the Mumbai attacks which left 188 people dead and has demanded Pakistan hand over 20 terror suspects.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has denied his country was involved. "I think these are stateless actors who have been operating throughout the region. The gunmen, whoever they are, they are all stateless actors who are holding hostage the whole world," Zardari told CNN.(*)
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PubDate: 12/03/08 19:54
