JuD chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed made a rare public appearance in Islamabad today to lead the funeral prayers for Kashmiri leader Maulvi Showkat Ahmed Shah, killed in Srinagar last week. He used the occasion to trash talk Indo-Pak cricket diplomacy while promising a "jihad" in J&K.In a rabble-rousing speech, Saeed, the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, said the movement in Kashmir would serve as an example for "Muslims in Hyderabad and Junagarh who want independence from the oppression of Hindus".
"The stand taken by the Pakistan government for friendship with India is not acceptable to the Pakistani people under any circumstances," Saeed, also the founder of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba, said.
Saeed declared that "friendship, trade and cricket diplomacy" with India has no meaning. "We make it clear that (the government) should back the Hurriyat till the last breath for the independence of Kashmir."
"We want to make it clear that we are with Kashmiris and will remain with them... All the people in Pakistan and Kashmir are unwilling to accept anything less than independence (for Jammu & Kashmir)," he exclaimed as the crowd repeatedly cheered.
He said that instead of efforts to foster friendship and trade with India, Pakistan should work to achieve the "independence" of Jammu & Kashmir.
Paying homage to Shah, the president of the Jamiat-e-Ahle Hadith, killed in the bombing on April 8, Saeed called the movement in Jammu & Kashmir "a jihad for independence where even death is part of life".
Dismissing the idea that the jihad in Kashmir had become weak in the post-9/11 era, Saeed said that "it has come very close to its final stage".
Saeed claimed that the Kashmiri leaders had kept alive their movement even "when Pakistan was under great pressure" and the government in Islamabad "always gave in to pressure".
Saeed has led several rallies in Lahore calling for jihad in Jammu and Kashmir. He said the situation in Afghanistan was a sign that India could not continue what he described as the "occupation" of Jammu and Kashmir.
"I want to tell India this is not that era when Muslims were silent (and) things have changed. Muslims have become aware. If Russia could not continue its occupation of Afghanistan, if America is preparing to pull out and they are admitting that they have failed in their mission in Afghanistan and they cannot continue their occupation... then India cannot continue its occupation of Kashmir," he said.
The gathering was also addressed by Abdul Aziz Alvi, the head of the JuD in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, United Jihad Council vice-chairman Muhammad Usman and leaders of the Hurriyat Conference.