Traders offer reward

8220;We will give Rs 10 million to anyone who beheads Rushdie,8221; said Ajmal Baluch, secretary general of the Islamabad traders association. He also urged Islamic countries to boycott British products.

Meanwhile, Pakistan8217;s Parliament today passed yet another resolution seeking withdrawal of the knighthood.

The same day, British Muslims held a rally in London to protest against the knighthood to the author.

8220;This knighthood is just another example of Tony Blair8217;s government8217;s attempt to secularise Muslims and reward apostates,8221; said Anjem Choudray, a former head of the British wing of the banned radical group al-Muhajiroun.

In another development, a Iranian hard-line cleric said on Friday that the fatwa calling for Rushdie8217;s killing remains in place. The reminder of the fatwa, issued in 1989 by then-supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini, came from Ayatollah Khatami, who does not hold a government post but has the influential post of delivering the sermon during Friday prayers once a month.