JuD warns India against 'striking' Pakistan

Islamabad, Jun 21: Outlawed radical outfit Jamaat-ud-Dawah has warned India against "striking" Pakistan and asked it to hand over persons involved in the Samjhauta Express train bombing.

The 10-point declaration was adopted at the "Defence of Islam and Pakistan's Stability" conference organised by JuD at the Jamia-al-Dirasat Islamia seminary in Karachi yesterday.

It called for the US to be declared an enemy of Pakistan and warned the government against releasing Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh.

The declaration also warned India against "striking" Pakistan and asked it to hand over persons involved in the 2007 Samjhauta Express train bombing, in which 68 people were killed mostly Pakistanis.

It also warned the people about alleged attempts by India, Israel and the US to destabilise Pakistan and called for unity among citizens to defend the country.

Among those who addressed the gathering was senior JuD leader Abdur Rehman Makki, who contended the situation in Pakistan was "not as bad as the local and Western media says".

Makki pointed to the perceived inability of the US to win the war in Afghanistan and said if "Pakistan is worried about the future, (Admiral) Mike Mullen and (Gen David) Petraeus are more worried!" Makki also praised slain al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, who was killed in a US raid in Abbottabad on May 2.

"He killed thousands of US citizens." He brought five planes that hit American buildings.

He brought the CIA and the FBI back to their senses," Makki was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune newspaper.

However, the conference guarded by Kalashnikov-toting men was attended by only about 100 seminary students.

PTI