New Trend Magazine (www.newtrendmag.org)

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This is a very important report because U.S. media have completely censored the story (till March 3, 9.45 am EST). Pro-Musharref media in Pakistan are trying to downplay the numbers. DAWN daily used the word "massive" but tried to give the impression that it was perhaps a hundred thousand. Daily Jung mentions "hundreds of thousands" which too is way below the reality. New Trend is thus doing a real service to the Muslim ummah.
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UNPRECEDENTED ANTI-WAR MARCH IN KARACHI, PAKISTAN: "STOP THE AGGRESSION AGAINST IRAQ"
BIGGEST GATHERING OF MUSLIM WOMEN IN RECENT HISTORY
TWO MILLION MEN, A MILLION WOMEN From Mazar-e-Qaid-e-Azam to Tower
BUSH-SHARON-VAJPAYEE-PUTIN CONDEMNED

March 2, 2003 was a day of Islamic pride and honor for the people of Karachi as MILLIONS gathered to oppose U.S. war on Iraq and to affirm Pakistan's Islamic identity.

Hundreds of convoys of trucks, pickups, buses, processions on foot from every part of this vast metropolis converged at the mausoleum of Quaide Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah who had dreamed of an Islamic Pakistan before it was stolen by military generals and secular opportunists. From the mausoleum, the crowds streamed forth towards the other end of the city, known as Tower.

By the end of the day, the entire road, all the way from the starting point to its conclusion was a vast sea of people. The throngs of women on one side of the road alone numbered more than a million while the numbers of men on the other side of the road and the numerous adjoining side streets are estimated at more than two million.

It was an awesome sight to see the endless stream of women in burqas and various kinds of hijabs, condemning the warmongering of Bush and Blair. There was open support for the people of Iraq, Palestine, Kashmir, Afghanistan and Chechnia struggling against U.S., Israeli, Indian and Russian oppression.

Most of the slogans and banners were for peace and against war, but there were also thousands of portraits of Osama bin Laden and segments of the crowd called for Jihad against U.S./Zionist imperialism.

The most important fact of the day was that the UNITY OF THE ISLAMIC COALITION IS HOLDING. The list of main speakers itself indicates this unity. These were:
Qazi Hussain Ahmed of Jamaate Islami (JI) Maulana Fazlur Rahman of Jamiatul Ulema-e-Islam (JUI)
Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP)
Maulana Samiul Haq (leader of the openly pro-Taliban movement)

Shias were also well represented as were western educated people who have decided to take Islam as the guidance, including the movement led by Imran Khan (a former cricketer, the Pakistani equivalent of baseball).

The chant of the massive crowd was, from one end of Karachi to the other:
ALLAHU AKBAR, ALLAHU AKBAR, ALLAHU AKBAR, ALLAHU AKBAR

The main points made by the speakers:
1. The war against Iraq is unjust.
2. War on Iraq is a war against the entire world of Islam
3. U.S. aid for Israel is the central cause of conflict in the Middle East.
4. We condemn U.S.'s atrocities in Afghanistan.
5. U.S. must withdraw from the Muslim world.
6. Musharraf is destroying Pakistan's national integrity and independence by helping the U.S.
7. We condemn FBI and Musharraf raids on Muslims within Pakistan's borders, particularly the break-ins into the homes of Muslim physicians.
8. Condemn the abduction of Khalid Shaikh Muhammad.
9. Kashmir must be liberated.
10. Our armed forces should go to Palestine to fight against the Jews rather than helping America to hunt down the mujahideen.
11. ALL BUSINESSES WHICH SUPPORT ISRAEL and U.S. aggression must be boycotted, home by home, across Pakistan: in particular McDonald's, Coca Cola, Pepsi, KFC, Disney etc.
12. All agreed that the U.S. is waging war against Islam under the label of "terrorism." The real terrorists are Bush, Blair, Sharon and their friends.
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NEW TREND's reporter learned from Syed Munawar Hasan, Secretary General of Jamaate Islami and one of the key organizers of the Million Peoples' March, that similar demonstrations are planned in Rawalpindi-Islamabad area and other cities with the next ten days.
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2003-03-05 Wed 07:53ct