Stop harassing madrassa students: JUI-F chief

Fazlur Rehman says it could push them towards terrorism; hits out at India.

SUKKUR: Eponymous chief of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, took up the cudgels for seminary students on Sunday, warning that any harassment on the part of the government could drive them into the arms of terrorists.

Addressing a large conference in Sukkur, the JUI-F chief said that most madrassa students come from underprivileged backgrounds. “If we don’t give them [students] admission in religious seminaries, they could become tools in the hands of terrorists.”



“If a handful of people have gone into the mountains with weapons, it does not mean that every man with a beard and a turban is a terrorist.”

He went on to claim that when the time comes, it will be those sporting beards and turbans who will be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the army in the defence of the motherland.

Since Pakistan has been created on the basis of Islamic ideology, Fazl said Pakistan needs to be run according to the Sharia. While the government thinks those enforcing Islamic laws through force are criminals, he said parliament is guilty of the same crime for ignoring the Council for Islamic Ideology’s (CII) recommendations.



Claiming that Pakistan would only prosper when it is under Islamic rule, he called for the immediate enforcement of Shariah.

Citing India as an example, the JUI-F chief pointed out that though that country’s constitution is secular, a religiously biased party is currently in power and is attempting to spark communal violence. He added that even Indians are now opposed to such policies.

Maulana Fazl said that some forces were trying to portray Muslims as terrorists which was baseless since Islam is a religion of peace and love. Further, he said that most Islamic countries were facing a number of challenges – prominent among which was terrorism. However, the ‘champions of democracy’ who claim to make untiring efforts for lasting peace, were nowhere to be seen. Instead, the JUI-F chief said, such peace loving countries had imposed war on the likes of Iraq and Afghanistan.



The conference was held to mark the first death anniversary of JUI-F leader Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro who had been assassinated in Sukkur on November 29 last year. Fazl called upon the government apprehend his killers and make an example out of them.

He also condemned Thursday’s bomb attack on JUI-F leader and Federal Minister for Housing and Works Akram Khan Durrani’s convoy in Bannu in which two people were killed and three others were injured. Rehman demanded that the attackers should be apprehended. He also demanded action against those who were involved in the Shikarpur and Jacobabad bombings.

Rejecting the local government elections in Sukkur and Larkana, Fazl demanded re-elections in both districts in addition to taking action against those seeking to divide Sindh.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th,  2015.