M A I N   N E W S

Pak may ban extremist groups

Islamabad, January 11
Religious extremists and sectarian groups may be banned and their fund-raising for the cause of jehad blocked, the Minister of Religious and Minorities Affairs Mahmud Ahmed Ghazi hinted.

Asked to define the term ‘religious extremists’, Mr Ghazi said: “All those groups or individuals who were killing people in the name of Islam by declaring others infidels and were sitting in judgements on others were religious extremists”.

He termed as revolutionary the efforts to introduce a model syllabus in all madarsas of the country which could transform society into a moderate Islamic state.

The minister dispelled the impression that the government was making any deliberate attempt to keep religious parties away from the country’s electoral process.

Referring to what they call freedom struggle in Kashmir valley, Mr Ghazi said: “It is purely an indigenous struggle to which Pakistan is providing moral and diplomatic support, but no one has the right to undertake jehadi activities in the name of Kashmir’s freedom”.

“Moral and material support to Kashmir refugees is okay, but beyond that if some individuals are promoting activities against the stated policy of the government, they cannot be condoned”, he maintained.

The minister, however, claimed that there were no Pakistani organisations engaged in jehad across the border and if someone was raising funds for such an activity, he was not doing any good to the country.

Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief Amanullah Khan on Friday said he feared his group could be a target of raids by the Pakistani authorities on Islamic militants, but said he was not afraid and would launch a fresh armed struggle if necessary.

Amanullah Khan, 67, said his group had a right to fight for independence for the disputed Himalayan region.

“Now, since it will be an open official decision of the government of Pakistan to clamp down on militants we may face Pakistan’s wrath” he told Reuters in an interview. ANI, Reuters

Parliament attackers' bodies buried
Tribune News Service

A Muslim priest says final prayers during a funeral service for a dead militant in New Delhi on Friday. The militant and his five accomplices were killed by security forces during the attack on Parliament on December 13. — Reuters photo

New Delhi, January 11
After 28 days of lying unclaimed in the hospital’s mortuary, the bodies of the five slain terrorists during the December 13 attack on Parliament House were today buried amid tight security in a graveyard near Delhi Gate here this evening.

The unclaimed bodies of the militants, Mohammad, Haider, Raja, Hamza and Rana, had been kept in the Sucheta Kriplani hospital mortuary as the government had set a deadline for Pakistan till January 10 for claiming these.

After the post-mortem the bodies were embalmed. As Pakistan refused to claim the bodies of its own nationals, it was decided to bury them.

It was around 6 p.m. that the bodies were brought from the hospital’s mortuary with police security. The bodies brought in wooden coffins were taken one by one and bathed and subsequently buried after reading the Namaz-e-Janaza around 8 p.m.

“We wanted to perform the all rituals before the bodies were buried,” said Qazi Azhar Ahmed, CEO of Delhi Wakf Board who was present.