The Islami Jamiat Talba (IJT) protested and blocked GT road on Thursday to condemn Javed Ashraf Qazi, the federal education minister, for making secular changes to the educational curriculum, said Zubair Ahmad Gondal, the IJT central chief. The students chanted slogans and displayed banners inscribed with statements against the federal government’s pro-US policies and frequent changes in the educational curriculum. Said Rasool, a protestor, said that after 9/11, the government was bent upon secularising the education system in the country by various tactics. He said the introduction of the Aga Khan Board and deletions of Quranic verses pertaining to jihad were part of such tactics.
The protestors demanded the federal government expel Javed Ashraf from the cabinet for his secular and anti-Islamic ideas and practices. They threatened that if the secular changes made recently in the curriculum were not reversed, they would start an unending series of protests.