KARACHI: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) is holding what it says will be the biggest march in the country’s history in Karachi today, to protest against United States’ recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The ‘Al-Quds million march’, which is intended to express solidarity with Palestinians and protest against US President Donald Trump’s recent decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, will be held on University Road, from Urdu University to Hasan Square.
JI chief Sirajul Haq earlier said the march would be the country’s biggest ever.
Party vice chief Asadullah Bhutto and JI Karachi ameer Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman visited Hasan Square where they reviewed the preparations for the million march.
Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman called on people to attend the march in large numbers and said “terrorism by United States was destroying world peace.”
Earlier this month, JI had announced to hold countrywide protests over Jerusalem, with Sirajul Haq terming Trump’s decision as “adding fuel to the fire.”
Trump has put global peace in danger, he had said.
A fresh wave of violence has erupted on the Gaza Strip border following US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. As protests entered the second week, at least four Palestinians were shot dead and 150 others wounded by Israeli troops over the weekend.
Most of the casualties were on the Gaza Strip border, where thousands of Palestinians gathered to protest against Israeli soldiers beyond the fortified fence. Medics said the dead included a wheelchair-bound Palestinian.
In the occupied West Bank, another area where Palestinians are seeking statehood along with adjacent East Jerusalem, medics said two protesters were killed and 10 wounded by Israeli gunfire.
Palestinians — and the wider Arab and Muslim world — were incensed at Trump’s December 6 announcement, which reversed decades of US policy reticence on Jerusalem, a city where both Israel and the Palestinians want sovereignty.
Washington’s European allies and Russia have also voiced worries about Trump’s decision.
