MUSLIMS IN the city have decided to oppose US President George W Bush’s proposed visit to India by releasing black balloons in the air on his arrival next week.
A call to register their protest against the US President in this manner was given by Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad at a public meeting near Roomi Gate. The meeting, which was also addressed by Naib Imam Maulana Khalid Rasheed, Shah Fazlur Rehman Waizi Nadvi and Maulana Jehangir Qasmi, was called to condemn the bomb explosion that damaged a prominent Shia religious shrine at Samra in Iraq.
Dressed in black, hundreds of Muslims trooped out of the Asafi Masjid inside the Bara Imambara immediately after offering the Friday prayers and marched in a procession towards the Roomi Gate. Carrying black and green flags, the demonstrators burnt the US flag, raised slogans against not only against US, UK but also against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi for their pro-American stand on Iraq’s nuclear programme. Maulana Jawad said that the attack on the religious shrine of the Shias was a well-planned Zionist conspiracy aimed at dividing the Muslim community along sectarian lines.
Agreed Maulana Athar Abbas, who had come from Kolkatta, accusing Israel of abetting crime against members of the minority community.
Both Sunnis and Shias participated in the demonstration.