A few days back a picture went viral showing Pakistani ministers sitting and sharing the stage with the top leaders of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) at a rally organised by the banned group led by Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed. Another video being circulated on the social media platform, X, shows Pakistan's Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Ahmad Khan admitting close relations with Hafiz Saeed.
Ahmad shared the stage with JuD leaders Saifullah Kasuri, Saeed's son Hafiz Talha, and several others. Radical Islamist party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) chief Saad Hussain Rizvi was also present.
Ahmad Khan, a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader who reportedly has close ties with the military, attended the rally in Kasur on 28 May and made a fiery speech against Indian leadership and termed the Pahalgam terror attack a "false flag operation".
When journalists asked about his presence at the JuD rally, Khan on Monday questioned how come "he (Saifullah) be suspect without evidence?"
Attended the rally, since it was in my constituency: Ahmad
"Pakistan had asked India to provide evidence of its involvement in the Pahalgam incident. But it did not. We had also offered a neutral body to probe into the matter, which it also rejected. It preferred attacking Pakistan, which retaliated and in just hours gave a befitting response to it," he claimed. The speaker justified his presence at the rally, saying it was held in his constituency, and from that platform, he spread the message of peace.
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On Tuesday, Kasuri thanked Khan for his 'bold stance' to attend the rally organised by the banned group's political offshoot - the Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (PMML).
"We are grateful to Malik Ahmad Khan for his bold and effective response to the baseless allegations regarding his attending the PMML rally in Kasur (some 50kms from Lahore, on May 28)," Kasuri said in a statement.
He added that if the Indian government has evidence against him, it should present it at any international forum.
The top military, police, and civilian bureaucracy of Punjab province of Pakistan were among those who attended the funerals of three JuD operatives, killed in the Indian strikes on JuD headquarters in Muridke on May 7, in full view of cameras.
The JuD rally was another event that was attended and addressed by a top politician of the ruling PML-N, showing that the military-backed set-up in the Centre and Punjab is holding no bars in extending its support to the group, whom India calls a terror outfit, which is banned in Pakistan as well.
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