Sunni clerics throw support behind govt in anti-terror efforts

ISLAMABAD: Sunni Ittehad Council clerics from across the country on Thursday threw their support behind the government in efforts to root out extremism and terrorism from the country.

The assurance came at a meeting between the clerics and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani at Parliament House. The delegation of clerics was led by Sunni Ittehad Council Chairman and Markazi Jamiat-e-Ulema Pakistan President Sahibzada Fazal Karim. The clerics told the prime minister that the military operation in Swat and Malakand should continue and be taken to its logical end. They also asked the government to take stern action against the madrassas involved in spreading extremism and terrorism.

Gilani said that clerics should take the lead in “portraying the true face of Islam”. “Our forefathers preached Islam ... they did not spread it through force,” he said, and called for the clerics to educate the masses that suicide bombings and killing of innocent people is un-Islamic.

“Terrorists are pursuing a foreign agenda of destabilising this Islamic nuclear state by enforcing their peculiar brand of faith, which is not acceptable to the people of Pakistan,” he said. Gilani said the government signed the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation in good faith, but “when these people took the law into their own hands by challenging the writ of the state, the government had no other choice but to opt for a military operation.” He said nobody could be allowed to create a state within state.

The prime minister branded the recent death of Sarfaraz Naeemi in a suicide attack “a national loss”. He said Naeemi, who had declared suicide bombings un-Islamic, had given his life for a greater national cause. He vowed to bring those responsible for the clerics death to justice. Following the meeting, the delegation of clerics also sat through the proceedings of the National Assembly and the Senate.
Daily Times