Identifying ‘third force’: JUI-F blames Blackwater for unrest

Party will not increase security after attack on seminary in Quetta.

KARACHI:
The Fazlur Rehman-led faction of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) has accused Blackwater of being responsible for sectarian attacks in the country as well as the state of law and order in Karachi.

According to Aslam Ghauri, the JUI-F’s Sindh information secretary, the party recently met the Sindh chief minister to share their concerns. “We told him that there are outsiders who are involved and responsible for the worsening situation in the country and this is a direct result of closing down the Nato supply routes,” Ghauri told The Express Tribune. “Karachi and Balochistan are being targeted and sectarianism is being spread. The people who are being implicated are not the ones involved.”

He said that there is a “third force” involved that is making people fight among each other and is responsible for the targeted killings. “However, our ulema understand this situation and the JUI-F network also knows not to respond. This sectarianism is a conspiracy.”

Referring to the controversial security contractor firm now known as Xe, Ghauri alleged that “Blackwater’s mercenaries are involved”.

Guarding your own


A JUI-F seminary in Quetta was bombed on Thursday and 16 people were killed in the attack, including relatives of JUI-F Secretary General Abdul Ghafoor Haideri. However, the party is not looking at increasing security measures at seminaries across Sindh. “We have not increased security because we do not think this will be resolved by doing so,” said Ghauri. “The real facts should be presented to the people. The government is the one who is responsible for security and they should increase it.”

Ghauri maintained that the party has their own security arrangements at mosques and seminaries which would continue as they are.

The JUI-F has a substantial network of seminaries and mosques across the province. During the 2011 floods, the party-run seminaries also engaged in relief work.

A teacher at a seminary, linked to the JUI-F in Badin district, said that the seminary worked in disaster zones for the first time and had also been instructed to do so by the Wafaqul Madaris Arabia.

He said they had distributed Rs300,000 in cash and provided rations to 5,000 families in Tando Bago, Shadi Larj and Jhuddo. Scores of seminary students from Sindh and Balochistan also attended the massive rally organised by the JUI-F in Karachi on January 27.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 10th, 2012.
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