Every terrorist must be punished: Siraj ul Haq

Lahore: Ameer, Jamaat e Islami, Pakistan, Sirajul Haq, has said that every terrorist-whosoever he may be and to whichever organization he may belong, must be punished.

Talking to the media at the Karachi airport on Tuesday, he however said that the Peshawar tragedy should not be exploited to malign Islam. He said that certain elements were trying to use the Peshawar tragedy against religion and the madrissahs.

He emphasized that a terrorist had no religion. He said that the gruesome Peshawar tragedy had grieved everyman and woman in the country.

Sirajul Haq stressed that every terrorist should be brought to the law. He said that the government should frame a law providing that any individual or organization carrying out acts of armed terrorism against the country, whether in the name of any region, nationality or ethnic group, should be punished.

He said that the law against terrorism should be enforced without any discrimination. He said that the elements trying to defame the mosques on this ground wanted to please the western colonialism and the US. He pointed out that the present Bill had focused the madrissahs where around three million students were on roll. Thus, this was a conspiracy to open a front against three million students and their families in a bid to further divide the Pakistani society.

The JI chief said that the madrissahs were imparting religious education and none of these was involved in terrorism.

He posed a question as to why the government – both federal and the provincial- had never allocated any funds for the three million students studying at the madrissahs in their budget.

Sirajul Haq said that every citizen wanted peace. He said the JI had been condemning all forms of terrorism. At the same time, he said, the JI had repeatedly asserted that it was the western agenda to link terrorism with religion.