Daily Times

Sir: A number of people gathered in a mosque in a middle-class suburb of Karachi to offer funeral prayers in absentia for a young engineering graduate. Abdul Rahman Shujaat, an activist of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), was killed last week in a drone attack on a terrorists’ hideout in North Waziristan. Shujaat’s family members and the JI disociated themselves from queries about what led Shujaat not to pursue his engineering career but to become part of a feared terrorist organization, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). However, their disassociation from the deeds committed by Shujaat does not mean anything in the face of policies advocated by Pakistan’s religious parties.

It was the JI’s head who recently declared Taliban leader Hakeemullah Mehsud a martyr. Mehsud was also killed in a drone strike in North Waziristan. It is obvious that such a definition of jihad and martyrdom will encourage a number of their activists and innocent citizens to wage jihad against their own people. In Pakistan, we are facing a great contradiction wherein even terrorists are loved and lauded for their acts against the general public and security forces. Perhaps the time has come for these religious parties to do deep introspection about their policies; they cannot live a two-pronged life. They have to decide whether they are with the terrorists or are friends of Pakistan.

MASOOD KHAN

Jubail,

Saudi Arabia