Shia Ulema Council Secretary General Allama Arif Hussain Wahidi lodged a strong protest over the blood shed of the Shia community, a few kilometers away from the D-8 conference.
Addressing a press conference with other Shia leaders at the National Press Club on Thursday, he strongly castigated inadequate steps like banning pillion riding and the use of cell phones on Muharram days, and demanded that criminals found involved in the murderous activities should be publicly hanged.
He was furious over elements being given a free hand despite them raising slogans charging Shias of being infidels. He said that even written pleas addressed to President Zardari, Rehman Malik and Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Nov 6th and the meeting with them had not elicited any positive results. “Blood and gore was freely spilt in Karachi, followed immediately in Rawalpindi, only a few kilometers away from the D-8 International Conference, being held in Islamabad” he fumed. He also criticized Rehman Malik’s statement that courts were responsible for freeing criminals.
“FIRs launched against such criminals were half-baked,” he protested, adding that arresting criminals was the government’s duty.
He chided daily boastful statements by government regarding the arrest of terrorists and criminal elements. He also said that all Muslim sects were a united brotherhood, as all faced terrorism, alike.
Punjab Shia Ulema Council President Mazhar Alvi told the media that the attention of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had been drawn to discriminatory orders of the IG banning Majalis sessions (Shia religious, sermons) in residential areas, while elements propagating violence in streets were free to do so.
The Shia Supreme Head Allama Syed Sajid Ali Naqvi announced a 3-day nationwide protest, starting on Friday, so that the government would be pressurized into taking strong action against terrorist elements.
