DR Tahirul Qadri’s march has been thoughtlessly compared with
the long march undertaken by Mao Zedong and his companions. For
the information of the media, I would like to mention some facts
about Mao’s long march. Mao Zedong and his 100,000 companions
undertook the long march from South-East to North-West China
during 1934-35, covering a distance of 6,000 miles. The march
left Jiangxi in October 1934. At the end of the journey about a
year later, only 8,000 of the people were able to reach Shanxi.
So there is just no comparison between Mao’s long march and the
one undertaken by Dr Qadri. The latter’s march covered only 356
km, on a level road, with friendly people throughout his
journey. Mao covered extremely hostile terrain, harsh weather,
and acute shortage of food and opposition forces, with the
result that only 8,000 out of the 100,000 survived the journey.
ABID MAHMUD ANSARI Islamabad