HYDERABAD: A multi-party conference (MPC) demanded on Monday abolition of the Criminal Law (Protection of Minorities) Bill, 2015, recently passed by Sindh A ssembly that prohibited conversion of children below 18 years of age.

Speakers at the conference who included leaders of religious and political parties and trade organisations called for an effective strategy to stop Indian aggression along the Line of Control (LoC) and atrocities by its forces in held-Kashmir.

They said the government should formulate an aggressive foreign policy to give a befitting response to Indian prime minister`s threats about stopping water fiows to Pakistan.

The conference that discussed the threepoint agenda of abolition of the bill, strategy against Indian aggression and reply to Indian premier`s threats was organised by the Sindh chapter of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), headed by Faisal Nadeem, at Markaz Abdul Rehman Bin Auf on Autobahn road on Monday evening.

Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Sami leader Abdul Wahid Swati said that Indian premier Narendra Modi who had adopted an aggres-sive policy and turned up heat along the LoC and in held-Kashmir was now threatening to stop water flows into Pakistan.

He said that there was compelling evidence that suggested secret agencies of India and Israel were involved in terror attacks in the country. The government, therefore, should immediately send an appropriate and courageous reply to India in the language it understood, he said.

`We demand the Sindh rulers do away with the controversial bill forthwith and call upon all parties to formulate a strategy to eliminate all conspiracies against the religion,` he added.

Naib emir of the Sindh chapter of the Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadis, Ameer Abdullah Farooqui, appealed to new chief of army staff to teach a lesson to India. The prime minister must raise the issue of water and LoC ceasefire violations at the United Nations, he said.

`We (all religious parties) must stage oneday strike and lay siege to Sindh Assembly to stage a strong protest against the anti-Islam bill,` he said.

The outlawed Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat leader Allama Abdul Samad Haidri said that it was not for the first time in the country`s history that an assembly had passed a controversial bill in violation of the Constitution.

He said that both PML-N and PPP wereinvolved in making such laws in past and urge d all leaders to announce fighting against the controversial bill through all constitutional means and launching a protest movement against it from Sindh.

The Sindh chapter of the Jamiat Ulema-iIslam-Fazl information secretary Maulana Taj Mohammad Nahiyoon stressed the need for holding similar conferences in all districts of the country to create awareness among people about the controversial law. Muslims were being massacred and oppressed throughout the world, especially in Indiaheld Kashmir but champions of human rights were tight-lipped over it, he said.

He said that Muslims were staunch supporters of minorities` rights and no non-Muslim was ever forced to embrace Islam throughout the country where all non-Muslims were allowed to go to their worship places freely.

On the contrary, Kashmiris in India-held Kashmir were forbidden from going to mosques to hold Friday prayers, he said.

He said that India was already stealing Pakistan`s water and now it was threatening to stop whatever little water it allowed to flow to the country.

India was constructing the second largest dam of the world over the Indus to stop water flows to Pakistan and it was already stealingwater from Jhelum river by building a 45-km tunnel to irrigate Rajasthan through Indira Gandhi canal. It had also constructed four dams to stop water of Chenab river, he said.

He said that his party would soon organise a consultative meeting to form a comprehensive strategy against the controversial bill.

Mufti Habibullah said that Sindh Assembly members` membership must be cancelled for working against the Constitution and the bill must be abolished.

The parties should lay siege to Chief Minister House to force the government do away with the controversial law, he said.

Jamaat-i-Islami leader Saifur Rehman delivered a fiery speech against the Sindh Assembly and said it was sad the MPAs had no knowledge of Islam.

Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan-Noorani leader Abdul Rauf urged the federal government to intervene to abolish the controversial bill. All should be united against the law and the MPC should give call for protest on Dec 2, he said.

Leaders if trade organisations also spoke against the controversial bill at the conference which passed three resolutions, calling for abolition of the controversial bill, evolving a comprehensive strategy to stop Indian aggression on LoC and held-Kashmir and formulating an aggressive policy to reply to Indian prime minister.