Masood Azhar holds rally despite ban

ISLAMABAD: Maulana Masood Azhar, leader of a militant group accused of the 2001 Indian parliament attack who was barred from addressing a party conference in Peshawar by Pakistani authorities, later addressed a gathering and hailed al-Qaeda terror network chief Osama Bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar as "heroes of Muslim world". Azhar, who has re-named his banned terror outfit Jaish-e-Muhammad as Kuddam-ul-Islam was barred from addressing 'Deefa-e-Islam' conference organised by his party on Friday at Press club in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's volatile North West Frontier Province, on the grounds that his party has been banned.He was however allowed to lay a foundation stone for a new building and permitted to address a large Friday gathering at a mosque in Peshawar, where he said Osama and Omar showed "supreme courage and tenacity" against US. "We have not lost war in Afghanistan... rather it is a step towards launching greater war against the infidels. I warn all the enemies of Islam that we will not shun jehad and continue to frustrate the enemy," Azhar was quoted as saying by the Pakistan daily from Peshawar, The Statesman. Claiming that the present "resistance movment" against US forces was a testimony that Taliban has not been defeated in Afghanistan, the terrorist leader said that any Muslim country that banned jehadi organisations would perish "because jehad was the soul of Islam." Pakistan government imposed curbs on Azhar as the recent India-Pakistan peace process picked up steam. Few weeks ago, he was banned from addressing a meeting in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir after he lashed out at the peace moves in a separate rally there.