LAHORE: The Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), a conglomerate of over 20 parties of the Barelvi school of thought, said that calling the killing of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Chief Hakimullah Mehsud a martyr is against Quran and Sunnah.
The statement came in response to the recent statements by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Jamaat e Islami (JI) Ameer Syed Munawwar Hasan calling Hakimullah Mehsud a martyr.
In the degree issued by the SIC, it was said that Hakimullah was involved in the killing of thousands of innocent people and the fact that he was killed by a US drone could not purge him of his sins.
The degree said the US drone attacks were the worst kind of cruelty, tyranny and violation of human rights and international laws that had left thousands of innocent men, women and children dead. Drone attacks must be stopped at all costs.
However, the TTP members considered all others except their like-minded people as infidel and liable to be killed, which is against the teachings of Quran and Sunnah, the degree said. Besides, the TTP also disowns the Constitution of Pakistan which was formulated by Ulema and religious scholars of all schools of thought, and that also qualified him to be called as a traitor of the country, it added.
The degree was signed by the head of SIC Ulema Board, Allama Sharif Rizvi, and members Allama Akbar Rizvi, Mufti Saeed Rizvi, Allama Hamid Sarfraz, Allama Ammar Saeed Sulemani, Pir Atharul Qadri and others.
It is pertinent to mention that JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and JI Ameer Syed Munawwar Hasan in their separate statements labeled the slain Taliban Chief Hakimullah Mehsud as a martyr.
