KARACHI: Central secretary general of the Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen Allama Raja Nasir Abbas has slammed suspension of condemned convicts’ execution by some judges and appealed to the superior judiciary to take notice of what he described as an unjustified delay in their hanging.

He said that justice delayed was justice denied and called for expanding the Zarb-i-Azb operation throughout the country, including Karachi, to get rid of terrorists and Takfiris who he said massacred innocent schoolchildren in Peshawar and continue to kill civilians and security officials.

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Allama Abbas, who was accompanied by Maulana Aqeel Yusuf, Ali Anwar Jafri, Maulana Ahsan Danish and Syed Ali Hussain Naqvi, said at a press conference at Pak Muharram Hall near the Numaish traffic intersection on Tuesday that the judiciary should be on the same page with the army like all politicians, civil society and the entire nation.

He called upon opponents of terrorism to give up soft attitude towards supporters of talks with terrorists and advised the government that either the mosques where terrorism was preached be demolished like Masjid-i-Zarrar or the mosque be saved by removing its prayer leader and installing a moderate scholar.

He urged the media not to project terrorist outfits, leaders and pro-terrorists clerics by inviting them to make comments during news hour and talk shows. Instead of them, the media should invite moderate clerics and politicians to present the true face of Islam. Those who supported talks with terrorists should not be encouraged and the point of view of pro-operation Zarb-i-Azb be projected, he said.

Allama Abbas called for a new legislation to declare Takfiri ideology a punishable crime and said the ideology was a source of inspiration for all those who considered themselves righteous Muslims and counted others as infidels.

He appealed to people not to forget the Peshawar tragedy and continue mourning over deaths of innocent children till all perpetrators of terror and abettors were duly punished.

He condemned targeted killing of two Shias and attacks on three others in Karachi on Monday and offered condolences to their heirs and relatives. Shias were asking if they were not citizens of Pakistan and why a criminal silence was maintained over their genocide at the hands of the same terrorists who claimed responsibility for the Peshawar massacre of innocent children, he said.

He urged the government and the parliamentarians not to delay finalisation of a counterterrorism strategy and said they all should back the ongoing Zarb-i-Azb operation.

Similarly, he said, the government, politicians and media should not hide identity of the Takfiri terrorists and expose their identity, their outfits, seminaries and mosques and everyone who backed them.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2014