The Jamaat-ud-Dawah,blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks,organised a rally on Thursday to protest the Pakistan governments move to give Most Favoured Nation-status to India. JuD leaders who addressed the rally accused India of being behind shortage of water affecting Pakistani farmers. Many farmers on tractors participated in the rally,which wound its way from Azadi Chowk to Nasir Bagh Chowk. JuD leader Ameer Hamza told the protesters that the organisations chief,Hafiz Mohammed Saeed,has assured Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani that the JuD would oppose any move to give India MFN-status. When Pakistan announced that it might award MFN status to India,Geelani called Hafiz Saeed,and Saeed reassured Geelani that we will not leave him alone. India can never be a most favourite nation for Pakistanis, Hamza said as the protesters shouted slogans. Abdul Rehman Makki,the deputy chief of JuD and a close aide of Saeed,criticised Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar in connection with the move to give India MFN-status. If this decision is not reversed,then those who are responsible for this decision will have to get reversed, he said. Leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami and Ahl-e-Sunnat-Wal-Jamaat,the front for the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba group,also joined the protest.
