Fighting words: Sunni Ittehad demands crackdown on seminaries

Resolutions condemn Americans as well as Taliban and their supporters.

LAHORE:

Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) has demanded an ‘unannounced’ crackdown on all seminaries in southern Punjab in order to end terrorism.

The SIC adopted a resolution on Sunday demanding that ‘supporters and informants’ of Taliban and terrorists’ sympathies in government service must be removed and action taken against them. The resolution added that organisations banned for extremism and terrorism must be stopped from functioning under new names. The network of such organisations should be broken and their heads brought to the book, the SIC added.

The SIC carried this resolution on Sunday at a seminar at Aiwan-e-Iqbal to remember Dr Muhammad Sarfaraz Naeemi.

SIC chairman Haji Fazle Karim said that they would not accept pro-Taliban elements. He said they were ready to sacrifice their lives in defence of the armed forces. He said supporters of ‘America-Taliban’ who had launched an anti-military campaign were aiding the US and India. He said Osama and Obama were killers of thousands of innocent people but the government and the politicians were afraid of the Taliban and America.

The seminar was presided over by Dr Muhammad Raghib Hussain Naeemi. Other prominent participants included Dr Muhammad Ashraf Asif Jalali, Allama Raza-i-Mustafa Naqshbandi, Syed Irshad Ahmed Arif, Sajjad Meer, Pir Muhammad Atharul Qadri, Haji Muhammad Nadeem, Maulana Mujahid Abdul Rasool Qadri, Maulana Muhammad Ali Naqshbandi, Muhammad Nawaz Kharal, and Muhammad Ziaul Haq Naqshbandi.

Through another resolution, they demanded that the government arrest the killers of Dr Naeemi. Other resolutions said that inefficient prosecution was resulting in arrested terrorists being released by courts. The government should rectify this laxity and ensure that the terrorists were punished for their crimes by putting in place a comprehensive investigation and prosecution process. He said despite confessions by several terrorists, those involved in the attack on PNS Mehran, the Parade Lane mosque, the GHQ and Manawan Police Traning School had not beeen arrested.

Another resolution urged the government not to put unnecessary sanctions on the media. It demanded the early arrest of the killers of Saleem Shehzad.

The speakers asked for the immediate evacuation of American forces from Afghanistan. Drone attacks on Tribal Areas, they said, were a violation of the country’s sovereignty and the government should take effective steps to stop them. They also demanded reduction in electricity loadshedding.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 20^th, 2011.