LAHORE, Sept 3: At least 50 religious scholars belonging to the Barelvi school of thought on Friday issued a joint fatwa (religious decree) declaring that both suicide bombers and their handlers deserved hell.

The decree by the scholars associated with the Barelvi groups in the Sunni Ittehad Council, a conglomerate of 20 parties, has come in the wake of the recent terror acts in Lahore and Quetta. They have also called for jihad against the terrorists, declaring the ongoing army operation against them legitimate.

“Suicide bombers and their handlers both deserve hell because suicide attacks in Islam are illegitimate and unlawful. Islam does not permit killing of any innocent person rather it declares murder of one person the murder of the whole human race,” quotes the decree issued to the media on Friday evening.

It says: “Jihad against the terrorists has now become an obligation for ensuring integrity of the homeland, protection of lives of innocent people, establishing durable peace, eliminating lawlessness and to foil nefarious conspiracies of the forces against Islam and the country”.

The scholars also described America as the biggest enemy of both Islam and humanity and urged the Pakistani rulers to give up US obedience and raise a strong voice against drone attacks.

The decree says the ongoing army operation against terrorism is lawful and the terrorists being killed in it are destined for hell while the army officers and jawans laying their lives are martyrs. It has, however, supported the freedom movements of Kashmir and Palestine, and jihad against the US invaders in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The scholars allege in their decree that Indian agency RAW, America's CIA and Israel's Mosad are behind the terror acts in the country and regret that the elements who had opposed the two-nation theory as well as Sufism have become agents of the three foreign agencies to play havoc with the innocent lives in the homeland.

They held equally responsible the people who are indirectly supporting the terrorists by putting up excuses for the suicide attacks.

Those who signed the religious decree included Haji Fazle Karim, Pir Mazhar Ali Kazmi, Syed Riaz Husain Shah, Syed Irfan Mashhadi, Haji Hanif Tayyab, Pir Afzal Qadri, Shah Turabul Haq Qadri, Sarwat Ijaz Qadri, Mufti Abdul Sialvi and Mufti Abdul Sattar Saeedi.