SAN JOSE, CA: San Francisco Bay Area communities take active interest in addressing the issues of democracy, justice and human rights in any part of the world. On Presidents’ Day, more than 250 people of various communities came together at the San Jose City Hall to protest against the terrorist attack on the Valentine’s Day on a police convoy that killed 44 people and wounded many more in Awantipura, India.
Pakistan based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), a terrorist group banned by United States, India and many other countries took responsibility for the attack. It is widely accepted that JeM is sponsored and nurtured by Pakistan’s military and spy agency Inter Services Intelligence.
In Bay Area more than 20 diverse organizations came together under the banner of ‘Democracies against Terror’ to show their disapproval of the policies of Pakistan and to protest against their continued sponsorship of terror activities outside of their border. Ms.Sumati Saksena Rao, Consul for Community Affairs, Information & Culture from Consulate General of India, San Francisco attended the event and thanked the Bay Area citizens for the solidarity with people of democratic India.
Rishi Kumar, Saratoga City Council Member spoke for the need for democratic societies to jointly fight the terrorism. Some of the speakers from Jammu & Kashmir state of India and narrated how they had to flee their state while terrorists ethnically cleansed native citizens of Kashmir who were not Muslims. Most of the citizens who had to leave in a hurry left behind all their belongings and have still not been able to go back.
One of the unique participations came from second generation immigrant students who showed up with huge energy to continue the tradition of American civic engagement.
The protest demanded that Pakistan be declared a terrorist state by U.S. and Masood Azhar, the head of the terrorist organization JeM declared UN designated terrorist.
The demonstration ended with a peace prayer and with a note that vigil will continue until the issue of terrorism that originates from Pakistan ends.
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