A string of rallies in Pakistan yesterday denounced the "occupation" of a Muslim country by U.S.-British forces, witnesses said.
Around 1,000 Shiites marched through the streets in Multan in central Punjab province, shouting slogans against "desecration" of holy sites at Najaf and Karbala in Iraq.
"The allied forces have subjected residential areas to ruthless bombing, transgressed holy sites and they are colonising Iraq," said Shafqat Hasnain Bhutta, leader of a peace forum which organised the Multan rally.
The protesters carried placards with slogans such as 'Protect the sanctity of holy places' , 'Do not colonise Iraq', 'Protect life and property of Iraqis', 'Down with America', 'Bush and Blair are enemies of peace.' They torched American and British flags.
Speakers said any attack on Syria or Iran would provoke severe reaction in the Islamic world. Two thousand women and children paraded in Punjabi city of Bahawalpur, condemning the large-scale civilian casualties in the military operations.
In Punjab capital, Lahore, hundreds of people took part in a rally organised by the Jamiat Ulema Islam, a member of the six-party Muttahida Majlis Amal religious alliance.
The participants condemned "desecration" of shrines in Iraq by allied forces and called for sending medical and humanitarian aid for suffering Iraqis.
Hundreds rallied in Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province, under the banner of a Shia party. "Muslims should unite to defend themselves against aggression," Shia leader Allamma Jawad Hadi said in an address.
Prayer leaders at mosques in Islamabad and other cities urged Islamic world not to allow foreign occupation of Iraq and called upon people to boycott American and British products.
In mosques throughout Pakistan, clerics yesterday called the U.S.-led coalition's sweep through Iraq an "occupation" and prayed that Iraqis resist.
"The occupation does not mean that people of Iraq have accepted America," said Ameer ul-Azeem, a spokesman for Pakistan's politically powerful religious alliance Muthida Majlis-e-Amal, or United Action Forum. Ameer-ul-Azeem played down media images of jubilant Iraqis celebrating the apparent ouster of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussain and the arrival of U.S. and British soldiers in Baghdad.
"These are a few looters. Few American lackeys," he said.
The United Action Forum rules in Pakistan's key northwestern region and is a government coalition partner in the deeply tribal and conservative southwest.
In the weeks before and during the Iraq conflict, the United Action Forum organised a series of anti-war rallies it called "Million Man Marches."
Some Pakistani clerics had strong words for both the United States and Britain.
"May Allah destroy America and Britain," said Maulana Mohammed Ishaq in his prayers in a mosque in the federal capital of Islamabad. "May Allah help the mujahedeen in Iraq, Kashmir, Palestine, Chechnya and around the world."
In the central city of Multan one cleric demanded Muslim governments declare jihad against the United States and Britain.
"Jihad has become obligatory for Muslims. Muslims should be united to declare jihad," Hafiz Latif said in Multan's Jamia Masjid Nistar.
In the southwestern city of Quetta, near the Afghan border, a cleric said Muslims were saddened by the "occupation of an independent country" by the United States.
"Infidels can only be defeated by unity among Muslims," said Maulana Abdul Wahid in the city's Kandahari Jamia Majid.
"May Allah rid Muslims of the aggression of infidels, give them courage to be firm against the infidels and make them united like one body," said cleric Abdul Karim in southern Karachi's Jamia Islamia, located in a posh residential area of the port city.
Similar prayers were also offered in the northwestern city of Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier province, where the Islamic alliance rules.
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