‘Interfaith harmony key to isolating terrorism’

In the aftermath of the blast in Sehwan, special assistant to the chief minister on minority affairs, Dr Khatu Mal Jeewan, stressed on promoting interfaith harmony to root out terrorism from the society.

In a statement issued on Sunday, he claimed that serving the masses was a priority of the Sindh government.

Dr Jeewan said the Minority Affairs Department had disbursed Rs8 million this year between needy people, which included widows.

Besides Rs 1.35 million were also given as marriage grants to families of the Christian community who could not afford marriage expenses of their daughters; Rs0.435 million were distributed for medical treatment.

He said the provincial government was paying special attention to the maintenance and renovation of minority communities’ places of worship.

Further providing details of renovation expenditures, he said schemes amounting to Rs10.5 million had been completed. Schemes costing Rs28 million pertaining to renovation of Christian community’s worship places was in progress; another tender amounting to Rs28 million for the community’s holy places have been released.

He appreciated the Christian community’s contribution to the country, especially in education and health sectors.

The CM's special assistant hoped the community would continue to play its valuable role in Pakistan’s progress. 

Jeewan's plea came at the end of a deadly week in Pakistan as over 100 people including media personnel and cops have been killed while scores have suffered injuries in around eights blasts in the country’s main cities including Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar and Sehwan. The army has since claimed to have killed over 100 terrorists following the suicide blast at the Qalandar Lal Shahbaz’ shrine. The attack was termed the deadliest in the country in over two years.