Hafeez’s India diatribe with backing of Pak’s top religious parties worrying: Editorial
By ANIWednesday, June 16, 2010
ISLAMABAD - Jamaat-ud-Daawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed was recently seen rubbing shoulders with some of the leading religious leaders of the country during a public rally in Lahore which certainly casts serious questions over the policies of the country’s mainstream religious parties.
An editorial in one of Pakistan’s top English newspapers said that Saeed’s diatribe, particularly against India, in the presence of mainstream religious leaders raises the question that whether they also support the radical views of groups like the JuD, the front face of the banned extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
“What is particularly worrying here is that Saeed delivered his diatribe in the company of the leaders of mainstream religious parties. He was clearly invited to the event. Does this mean that our ulema at large subscribe to the views espoused by Saeed? Do they share his radical views on jihad and an apparently positive take on the activities of the Taliban?” the editorial in the The Dawn asked.
It pointed out that militant organisations such as the LeT and the various incarnations of the Taliban are a product of Pakistan’s flawed policy of strategic depth, which sought to gain influence in Afghanistan through proxy agents and carry out militant activities in Kashmir.
The editorial said that while it was believed that Pakistan would change its approach amidst the war of its own survival and realise that the enemy lies within, it seems that the use of ‘proxy agents’ to fulfil its nefarious agendas has hardly been altered.
“It was hoped that this approach would change with the realisation that the real enemy lies within, that we are fighting our own war to safeguard the social fabric of Pakistan. But has the use of proxy agents stopped altogether? It is unlikely that someone like Hafiz Saeed could strut his stuff as publicly as he did on Sunday without the acquiescence at least of the right quarters,” the editorial concluded. (ANI)
