| Pak Taliban call on youths to rise against blasphemy |
ISLAMABAD The Pakistani Taliban on Saturday issued a call to young Muslims worldwide and within the country to rise up against an anti-Islam movie.
Hundreds of people demonstrated in cities across Pakistan on Friday to denounce the anti-Islam film, but there was none of the violence that left several dead in other parts of the Muslim world.
“We invite ... especially youth of Pakistan to stand up in defence of their religion and its sanctity,” Tehreeke Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said in an email.
“You are no less than the lads of Benghazi ... stop looking towards your tyrant rulers that they will do something, as they have accepted a life of humiliation,” the spokesman said.
He added that “atrocities” against Muslims were rising across the world.
Thousands demonstrated in cities and towns across the country. In some places the demonstrators burned US flags and called for punishment of the filmmaker.
In Lahore, Hafiz Saeed, the head of Jamaatud Dawa, led a 1,000-strong rally against the film. He urged the government to summon the American ambassador to protest against the film.
Hundreds of students gathered outside the US Consulate in Lahore and burned the American flag.
Jamaati Islami (JI) organised a rally in Karachi. About 1,000 party activists and supporters gathered with banners and placards bearing anti-US and anti-Israel slogans.
In Quetta, around 800 activists of Jamiat Ulemai Islam burned the US flag in front of the press club.
At least 500 protesters rallied in front of Islamabad’s Red Mosque after Friday prayers on a call from the JI.
Agencies
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