Long list of terrorists belonging to Madaris

KARACHI: Shahzaib Khanzada, host of Geo News programme ‘Aaj Shahzaib Khanzada Kay Sath’, said in the programme on Monday that voting on the bills in the National Assembly on the 21st Amendment to the Constitution and an amendment to the Army Act was postponed due to Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s reservations.
Maulana says that madrissa students have never been involved in any terrorist activity.However, there is a long list of terrorist activities in which people belonging to madaris were involved.
Giving a short list of such incidents, Shahzaib Khanzada said that Naeemullah, who had attacked Chaudhry Aslam, was a student of a madrissa, and his father was the Imam of a mosque in Orangi Town in Karachi.
Baitullah Mehsud had also been a student of a madrissa. Hakimullah Mehsud had been to the same madrissa Baitullah Mehsud had gone to in Hangu. Hakimullah Mehsud had joined the Taliban during his association with the madrissa.
Hafiz Gul Bahadur studied at a madrissa in Multan, went to Afghanistan to take part in the war there in the 1980s and later became a member of the JUI. Waliur Rehman Mehsud studied at the Jamia Islamia Imdadia in Faisalabad and then went to Waziristan.
Mullah Fazlullah studied at the madrissa of Maulvi Sufi Mohammad, established madrissa in Swat with the help of the Taliban and began a reign of terror there. Khalid Haqqani belonged to Darul Uloom Haqqania in Akora Khattak. He was a close associate of Hakimullah Mehsud.
The mastermind of suicide bombers, Qari Hussain, belonged to Karachi’s madrissa Jamia Farooqia. He had asked students of Lal Masjid and their relatives to join the Ghazi Force.Shahzaib Khanzada said that the Lal Masjid had once again been in the news recently. Secret agencies had warned the government that the Khateeb of the Lal Masjid, Maulana Abdul Aziz, could be a danger to the law and order situation in Islamabad. The report said that the administration of the Lal Masjid had links with extremist groups.
Shahzaib Khanzada said that the report had not bothered Maulana Abdul Aziz at all. He could not be arrested despite an arrest warrants for him. Meanwhile, a leader of the JUI-F, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, said that the JUI-F condemned all forms of terrorism. He said that his party had told the government that it should point out the madaris involved in terrorism and the JUI-F would fully cooperate with the government.
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said that the cause behind Indian aggression on Pakistani border areas was deep rooted. He said that India, instead of welcoming the operation in North Waziristan, had been trying to influence the operation. He said that he hoped that US President Barack Obama during his visit to India would give some attention to this matter too. He said it was India which had postponed the process of talks.
MQM Haider Abbas Rizvi said that the MQM was demanding an operation all over the country against the Taliban, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and other terrorist organisations. ANP leader Zahid Khan said that the ANP had been demanding a military operation in Karachi for a long time. He said the Taliban had arrived in Karachi in the 1980s. He said the Taliban and the Pakhtuns were not one and the same thing. He said there were Taliban and terrorists in every linguistic group.
Zahid Khan said that one should be very careful not to deal with the Pakhtuns discriminately. He said the terrorists considered the ANP as their biggest enemy.Senior analyst Mazhar Abbas said that the matters between the PML-N and the PTI were not moving in the direction of resolution, and the country once again seemed to be heading in the direction of political instability.