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June 8, 2016 Special Dispatch No. 6462

Defense Of Pakistan Conference: 'If India Provides Aid To America And Israel To Launch Drone Strikes On Pakistan's Nuclear Program... Then No City In India Will Remain Safe'

June 8, 2016
Special Dispatch No. 6462

On May 21, 2016, a U.S. drone strike killed Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor in Ahmad Wal in the Nushki district of Pakistan's Baluchistan province. Although Baluchistan, and especially the capital of Quetta, has been a safe haven for the leaders of the Pakistan-backed Afghan Taliban since they were displaced from Afghanistan following the post-9/11 U.S. military invasion, the United States had never before carried out drone strikes there.

The drone strike in Baluchistan left Pakistanis - especially the pro-jihad and pro-military Islamist leaders - worried that the country's sovereignty had been violated. On June 5, the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC, or the Defense of Pakistan Council), organized a rally in Islamabad culminating in the city's Abpara area, which is the site of the headquarters for the Pakistani military's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate. The ISI has been known for creating and nurturing jihadi groups in order to fight against Afghanistan and India for the past few decades. The venue of the DPC rally in Abpara indicates that its leader had the support of ISI.

The conference featured speeches attacking the U.S., India and Israel. The DPC mainly includes pro-jihad and pro-ISI leaders and clerics with deep roots in jihadi groups. Among those who spoke at the Abpara rally were: DPC chairman Maulana Samiul Haq, who is known as the father of jihad in Pakistan; Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the founder of terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba and now chief of its charity arm Jamaatud Dawa; Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, politician and chief of Awami Muslim League party; Allama Muhammad Ahmad Ludhianvi, the leader of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (new name of outlawed anti-Shi'ite terror group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan); Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, a veteran jihadi leader and chief of Ansarul Ummah; Hafiz Abdur Rehman Makki, a veteran jihadi leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba and now a central leader of Jamaatud Dawa, and several others.

The next morning, Pakistan's Urdu dailies prominently featured reports on the DPC conference on their front pages. Following are excerpts from an article in Roznama Express, an Urdu daily in mass circulation, titled: "Defense of Pakistan Conference: American Drone Strike Is A Declaration Of War Against Pakistan, The Army Chief Should Fulfil His Responsibility":


Defense of Pakistan Council leaders at the rally in Islamabad, June 5, 2016

"Islamabad (Special Report): Vowing to continue its movement against the drone strikes, even during and after Ramadan [starting June 7], the Defense of Pakistan Council has said that American drone aircraft have reached airports in India and missiles are being set up [to target Pakistan]. If India provides aid to America and Israel to launch drone strikes on Pakistan's nuclear program or anywhere else, then no city in India will remain safe.

"The Army chief [General Raheel Sharif] and the Air chief [Sohail Aman] should fulfil their responsibilities and the drones entering Pakistani boundaries should be shot down. If India and America can talk of attacking Pakistan, then we too have the right to defend Pakistan. Here on Sunday [June 5], at the end of the rally at Abpara [that started] in Faizabad, Defense of Pakistan Council chairman Maulana Samiul Haq said that [we] have to struggle to extricate the country from the shackles of the enemies; the country faces dangers at its ideological and geographical boundaries.

"[Samiul Haq said that] 'some forces are trying to make the country secular and liberal; that attacks are being carried out on the borders and the rulers do nothing; that the country's security and the defense of its Islamic character is the shared responsibility of all; and that the movement will continue even during the Ramadan with full force - with big gatherings being held on June 12 in Lahore, on June 19 in Faisalabad and on June 20 in Gujranwala.'


Pakistanis turned out in large numbers to attend the DPC rally despite summer heat

"Professor Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the emir of Jamaatud Dawa Pakistan, said that 'the U.S. drone strike [that killed Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor] was a rehearsal and declaration of war against Pakistan; the worrying point is that today American drones have reached Indian airports and missiles are being set up; if a drone takes off from bases in India and attacks Pakistan's atomic program or any other place, then we too have so many drones that your [India's] every town will be attacked.

"'This is the second difficult time since the Fall of East Pakistan [which became Bangladesh in 1971] but remember that this is not the Pakistan of 1971; rather this is a country with nuclear [power] and jihadi spirit which defeated Russia and now America [in post/911 Afghanistan]; the drones entering the Pakistani boundaries be shot down; if [U.S. President Barack] Obama talks of drone attacks, then we too say it with seriousness that we will defend this country.'

"Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, the chief of Awami Muslim League, said that 'America stopped [me] at the airport twice and it seems now that it will also seize [my] passport; three suicide attacks have taken place on me but I am still out in the open for the rights of people; the rulers have their everything [i.e. assets] abroad but I have to live and die here; such a difficult time never came in the nation's history since the Fall of Dhaka [i.e. secession of East Pakistan in 1971]; the Defense of Pakistan Council should bring together political parties.'

"Sardar Atiq Ahmed Khan, the chief of Muslim Conference [party] and former Prime Minister of [Pakistani-controlled] Azad Kashmir, said that external conspiracies against Pakistan are growing. Allama Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi, the chief of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat [a religious and terrorist group known for systematically killing Pakistani Shi'ites], said that thousands of people gathering [for this conference] despite the extreme heat is proof that the nation stands shoulder to shoulder with the Defense of Pakistan Council.

"Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, the chief of Ansarullah Ummah, said that after creating unrest in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [province], America now wants to create unrest in Baluchistan by carrying out drone attacks there. 'The drone attack [that killed Mullah Mansoor] is an attack on Pakistan's integrity; Pakistan's people and military are on the same page [even though the government may not]'..."

Source: Roznama Express (Pakistan), June 6, 2016.

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