Chairman Sunni Ittehad Council Sahibzada Fazal Karim addressing protestors in Rawalpindi.—Photo by Online

RAWALPINDI: The Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) on Tuesday demanded that a crackdown be launched against terrorists challenging the writ of the state and making insecure the lives of innocent civilians.

Addressing participants of a ‘train march’ outside the Rawalpindi railway station here, Chairman Sahibzada Fazal Karim strongly condemned the attack on 14-year-old activist Malala Yousafzai by Taliban militants in a Swat town last week.

He termed the attack on young Yousufzai, a National Peace Award winner, un-Islamic and declared it a conspiracy against Islam, which, he added, is a religion of peace, tolerance and brotherhood.

Moreover, Islam does not allow anyone to take lives of innocent people by carrying out subversive activities, he added.

The ‘train march’, which started from Karachi on Sunday evening against drone attacks and an anti-Islam film made in the US, reached the Rawalpindi in wee hours of Tuesday.

Hundreds of SIC supporters and a good number of prominent religious scholars including Maulana Haseen-ud-Din, Allama Riaz Hussain, Haneef Qureshi, Qari Zahoor Elahi Qadri, Mufti Naseer-ur-Din, Faisal Hussain Shah, Sahibzada Usman Ghani and Pir Sultan Ali Shah received the march.

Commenting on the anti-Islam film, “Innocence of Muslims”, the SIC chairman urged Muslims to unite and evolve an effective strategy so that such incidents do not reoccur in future.

He suggested the government call a session of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) on the issue of ‘Tahafuz-e-Namoos-e-Risalat’ to ask the United Nations for making legislation against blasphemy.

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