ISLAMABAD: Pakistani religio-political parties have called for nationwide protests on Friday over ongoing United States-Israeli strikes on Iran and the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, they said, amid Iran’s retaliatory strikes on Israel and US interests in the Gulf region.
Khamenei was killed in the first hours of the US-Israeli air campaign that began on Saturday in the first assassination of a country’s top ruler by an airstrike. His killing sparked violent protests in Pakistan, with at least 25 people killed in clashes with law enforcers.
The joint air assault is nearing the end of its first week after opening salvos killed Iran’s leaders and set off a regional war, with Iranian retaliatory attacks in Israel, the Gulf and Iraq, and Israeli extending scope of its attacks to Iran’s ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“Today, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) will hold peaceful protests to condemn the joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran and express solidarity with the Iranian people,” Salman Shaikh, the JI media director, told Arab News on Friday. “Demonstrations are scheduled to take place after Jummah (Friday) prayers outside mosques as well as at all district headquarters across Pakistan.”
