August 16, 2007	Thursday	Sha’aban 2, 1428

PESHAWAR, Aug 15: The Wafaqul Madaris Arabia Pakistan (WMAP) seeks registration of an FIR against President Gen Pervez Musharraf for “getting scores of students holed up in the Lal Masjid-Jamia Hafsa complex killed”.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Wednesday, WMAP’s deputy chief administrator Mufti Kifayatullah said a petition had been filed in the Supreme Court seeking registration of a murder case against Gen Musharraf and “his other accomplices” for launching the operation against the students.

He said President Gen Musharraf had ordered use of excessive force against the students.

He claimed that scores of students had been burnt alive inside the complex.

“We both (students of the Jamia Hafsa and the WMAP leadership) are the victims. On one hand, the government kept us engaged in meaningless talks and, on the other, it went ahead with its secret programme of eliminating students,” he said.

He said the students and the WMAP were the victims of hypocrisy. “The government ditched us.”

He said the WMAP had endorsed the demands of Maulana Abdul Aziz, in-charge of Lal Masjid and Jamia Fareedia. He said raids on the residence of Auntie Shamim and a Chinese ‘clinic’ were right because “Islam teaches us to stop vices with force”.

After the Lal Masjid operation, he said, the government had tried to divide the WMAP on sectarian lines, but clerics foiled the plan.

He said the central executive council of the WMAP would meet on Aug 18 in Multan and discuss its future line of action. “We have 13,500 registered seminaries in Azad Kashmir and Pakistan. We regularly hold annual examinations without any delay.

“At present, 175,171 students are appearing at 1,027 examination centres across the country. More than 7,000 teachers are engaged in this exercise. This is our system, which is being opposed by the government,” he said.

He said the government would be the loser in its ongoing tug of war with seminaries.

He urged the government to immediately release Maulana Abdul Aziz, withdraw ‘bogus’ cases against imprisoned students, release names of all the students killed in the military operation, reopen Lal Masjid and hand it over to Maulana Abdul Aziz.

He said the WMAP would not back out of its demands.