Thousands of Karachi residents on Sunday gathered on the city’s main roads for Gaza solidarity marches organised by two religio-political parties, where the participants expressed solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza amid Israel’s bloody military offensive.
The Israeli offensive, which began in response to Hamas’s unprecedented attack on October 7, 2023, has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians and destroyed much of the housing and hospital infrastructure in the enclave. The death toll is feared to be much higher due to thousands still missing under the rubble.
These marches come two days after large pro-Palestinian protests were observed in cities across Pakistan.
The rallies were organised by the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) on main Sharea Faisal and Sharah-i-Quaideen, respectively, according to press releases issued by the parties.
According to the JI’s press release, people from all walks of life attended the demonstration, called by party chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, including representative bodies of lawyers, teachers, traders, doctors and other professionals.
“One of the two tracks of Shahrah-e-Faisal was dedicated to women and children. Sculptures of dead bodies of innocent children in Gaza were placed under the overhead bridge,” the release read. “Screens were also placed on the occasion.”
According to the JI, Naeem delivered the keynote address and said that Karachi had “once again proved that it represents the entire Muslim world”.
“The people of Gaza were facing unbearable pain, around 70,000 people were killed in Gaza, [a] significant majority among them were of women and children,” he was quoted as saying.
“The role of the United Nations has vanished. Israel, with the support of the United States, was blowing apart innocent children with ruthless bombings, whereas the UN was passing useless resolutions and statements.”
The JI chief warned Muslim world leaders that Israel would threaten them after it was finished with its campaign in Gaza, the press release read.
