Hundreds of members of Pakistan’s Hindu community have turned out to protest on behalf of a Muslim charity accused by India over the deadly Mumbai attacks.
Muslim Pakistan has a Hindu minority, many of whom are impoverished agricultural workers, but the women in the southern city of Hyderabad rejected what they called pressure by mostly Hindu India to ban the Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity.
“How can an organisation be terrorist if it’s been providing food and water to us despite knowing that we’re not Muslims?” said Biga Ram, a 40-year protester.
“They’re friends of humanity. We condemn the ban. It’s unjust,” she said.
Some of the banners read: “Do not ban our saviour!”
Bhai Chand, a Hindu community leader, told Associated Press the charity had set up water wells in the desert.
The protesters gathered outside the Hyderabad press club chanting slogans in support of the charity and holding banners with messages such as: “Jamaat-ud-Dawa is not terrorist” and “We condemn the banning of Jamaat-ud-Dawa under Indian pressure”.Pakistan has not yet formally banned the charity but has rounded up dozens of its activists, detained some of its leaders, shut its offices and frozen its bank accounts as part of a crackdown on suspected Islamists since the Mumbai attacks.
India says the charity is a front for the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group, which it says was set up by Pakistan to fight Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region.
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