New platform: Clerics form Difa-e-Islam Council

PESHAWAR:

Local clerics, leaders and office bearers of different religious parties and groups from Allah Dhand Dheri, Malakand have established the Difa-e-Islam Council (DIC). The council is aimed at consolidating the floodgates against what they call ‘anti-Islamic’ ideologies and extending support to the government for combating feuds in the region.

“The council will not indulge in any violence, nor will it resort to challenging the writ of state,” stated DIC Allah Dhand Dheri in its first ever press release issued on Thursday. The newly-formed body vowed to extend support to the government in combating violence.

Representatives of religious parties including Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Jamaat-e-Ahle Hadith, Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (Barelvis), the outlawed Jaish-i-Muhammad (JeM) and others attended the meeting.

The participants unanimously elected Abdul Aziz Balochistani as patron of the DIC, Mufti Ziaul Islam as president and Maulana Muhammad Iftikhar Farooqi as general secretary.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 31^st, 2014.