Pakistani Parties Want New Jihad

Leaders of two Islamist parties in Pakistan called for a jihad against the Pakistani government if it did not stand by demands for the United States to vacate the country, India's Zee News reports. Leaders of Jamaat-ud-Dawah [JuD] and Jamaat-e-Islami [JeI] also called America an enemy of the country and demanded a military response to Saturday's air raid that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

President Obama called the bombing "a tragedy" and officials promised to investigate what happened.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani responded to the NATO attack by calling it a "grave infringement of Pakistan's sovereignty," and temporarily cut supply routes from the country into Afghanistan. He also demanded that American forces vacate Shamsi Air Force Base in southwestern Pakistan. The steps have drastically raised American-Pakistani tensions, which were already high over the nation's sheltering of militants including Osama bin Laden.

But the leaders of JuD and JeI are calling for harsher steps.

During a rally for its student wing, JuD leader Maulana Abdul Rauf Farooqi pledged a new jihad against the government if it did not evict American forces. The organization would hold a meeting of the Defense of Pakistan Council on Dec. 18 to declare "jihad is the only solution" for all types of American "terrorism." Another senior JuD leader, Ameer Hamza, called for all U.S. citizens to be kicked out of the country.

JeI Secretary General Liaqat Baloch called for the Pakistani government to follow through with anti-American resolutions. He encouraged Pakistanis to unite under JeI's "Go America Go" campaign, which called for the expulsion of NATO from the region and an end of Pakistani cooperation with American counterterrorism efforts. The head of JeI's Punjab chapter, Syed Waseem Akhtar, demanded a military response to American "aggression."

Related Topics: IPT News, Pakistan, Jamaat-ud-Dawah, Jamaat-e-Islami, Yousuf Raza Gilani, Maulana Abdul Rauf Farooqi, Liaqat Baloch, NATO

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