Protests Across South Asia Against Iran War, Khamenei Killing

Governments in South Asia are facing significant public criticism for their failure to outright condemn the US-Israeli assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and their joint unprovoked war against Iran.

Khamenei was widely regarded as the most important spiritual leader of the Shia faith across the world.

Spontaneous mass mobilizations were recorded all across the region on Sunday, March 1, after the news broke of Khamenei’s assassination. More such protests have been called for Monday and Tuesday.

Over a dozen Pakistanis were killed when security forces opened fire at demonstrations at US consulates and other foreign offices in Karachi, Lahore, and Skartu on Sunday.

Protests outside the US consulate in Karachi on March 1. Photo: Press TV

Across the border in Jammu and Kashmir, thousands of protesters broke the barriers erected by the security forces and marched in cities such as Srinagar and Kargil in protests against Israeli-US aggression and demanding end of the war.

In Pakistan’s Skardu, protesters set fire to a UN office.

Meanwhile, opposition parties and civil society groups in the region questioned their governments’ meek responses to Israeli-US aggression.

Many have also raised serious concerns about the fate of millions of their compatriots trapped in the Gulf region due to the US-Israeli war. India alone has an expatriate population of around 10 million working in various Gulf countries. Pakistan and Bangladesh both have over five million expatriates working in the Gulf.

India

Within India, opposition to the US-Israeli war has not only come from left parties, but also mainstream opposition. The Indian National Congress (INC), India’s main opposition party, said in a statement on Sunday, “The targeted use of force to destabilize the leadership and governing structures of the sovereign state-whether in Iran or earlier in Venezuela-signals a disturbing revival of regime change doctrines and coercive unilateralism.”

INC leaders called the Indian government’s failure to issue condemnation against the assassination of Khamenei “shameful and political cowardice.”

Communist parties in India also issued condemnation to Israeli-US aggression and demanded the Indian government to take a proactive stand against the war.

Left parties organized protests in different parts of the country to oppose the Israeli-US aggression against Iran and demanded the Indian state take a clear stand in support of UN Charter and international law.

Masses of people took to the streets in anti-war demonstrations in Srinagar and Kargil in the north, to Hyderabad and Chennai in the south. One of the largest demonstrations was recorded in the northern city of Lucknow, the capital of India’s largest state Uttar Pradesh.

Pakistan

Calling the Israeli-US attacks on Iran an attempt to “decimate and balkanize” Iran for its challenges to their hegemony, Haqooq-e-Khalq Party (HKP) extended its solidarity with the Iranian people. It called the assassination of Khamenei “an unacceptable act of criminal imperialist aggression” and asked the Pakistani government to fully stand with Iran.

The Mazdoor Kisan Party (MKP) organized a protest in Lahore against the US-Israeli aggression on Iran and condemned the government for its attempts to tilt towards the US and President Donald Trump.

Taimur Rahman, leader of the MKP, claimed that attacks on Iran are unacceptable and Pakistan must stand with it against the US-Israel aggression.

Several large protests were also held in different parts of the country, including in Gilgit Baltistan, Dera Ismail Khan, and other cities.

Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch