Talks could not be held during terrorist activities and air strikes: Munawar Hasan

Lahore: Ameer, Jamaat e Islami, Pakistan, Syed Munawar Hasan, has said that if talks could not be held when terrorist activities continued, then talks could also not be carried on during air strikes.

Addressing the Friday congregation at Mansoora mosque, he stressed upon Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to reject all US and India’s pressure, ignore the demand for the use of force, and restore the talks process. He warned that military operation was the path of destruction and a conspiracy to build a wall of hatred between the masses and the armed forces.

The JI chief reiterated that the Prime Minister should personally lead the talks and invite the Taliban to the negotiation table directly, as this would help find a way out. He said, so far the Prime Minister had acted with great restraint and tolerance, and expressed the hope that as the chief executive, the premier would pull the talks out of the deadlock. The Prime Minister should hear the committees on both sides,  and prove himself as a ray of hope instead of pushing the nation into despair, the JI chief said.

He said the jet strikes would only create panic instead of achieving any target. He said due to air strikes, thousands of people were shifting from the area and moving towards Peshawar and Bannu which had created the problem of food and shelter for them.

He said that if the tyranny of the tyrant was ignored, the oppressed would be compelled to react, which would lead to disruption. He counseled the media to give the viewpoint of both the sides instead of giving only one side version as this  was unjust.

The JI chief said that peace could not be restored unless the root cause of terrorism in the country, was removed. He said the root cause was Pakistan’s jumping into the US so called war on terror. If the government today announced pulling out of the terror war, the talk would not only be successful but the chaos and disruption on all sides would also end, he believed.

Syed Munawar Hasan said that the US had dragged Pakistan into her war and the country became a target of terrorism. He said the evidence of the US and India’s terrorism in the country was coming to fore every day but the Foreign Ministry did not have the courage to lodge protest over that. Foreign hand was also involved in the sectarian and ethnic terrorism, he added.

However, Prime Minister’s Foreign Advisor Sartaj Aziz was repeatedly begging the US not to abandon Pakistan after leaving Afghanistan, which was a matter of shame.  Those begging Washington in most humility were not prepared to even talk to their own people, he added

He said terrorism would continue as long as even a single US solider remained in this area. Therefore, instead of begging Washington to stay here, the government should ask her to pull out as early as possible.