FORMER Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed twice survived assassination attempts, one in Nowshera and the other near Swabi. In one attack one of his bodyguards was killed.

May I ask Munawar Hasan if Qazi Hussain Ahmed were killed in any of the attacks on him, what would then Mr Hasan have called him: shaheed or killed?

Shouldn’t we call the killed bodyguard a shaheed?

The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan terrorists killed the faithful while they were offering Juma prayers in the Parade Lane mosque, or many other mosques and imambargahs. Were those innocent Muslims not shaheed?

Those who killed were terrorists, and Hakeemullah was their leader, who had himself killed a number of innocent people. Should we even then call him shaheed?

Islam calls a student shaheed when he is killed on his way to learning; a person who drowns; a person in the line of duty, in boots or uniform — no matter he or she fights the enemy or not.

How can Munawar Hasan err? Is he drifting Jamaat-i-Islami towards the TTP — the anti-state group that does not recognise its government and its army?

Is the Jamaat-i-Islami out to align with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan to become anti-state or he and his party are with the state and its ideology?

In fact, the Jamaat-i-Islami and Fazlur Rehman’s statements are meant to damage the national cause and create confusion among the people, particularly the soldiers of our armed forces who are ever ready to sacrifice their lives as and when the nation calls for it.

Nations honour their heroes and martyrs. Even other religions call their ‘killed for a cause’ as martyrs. How can Jamaat-i-Islami emir or anyone else dare insult them?

PROF ALYA ALVI AND MEHR ALI SHAH
Rawalpindi

Belittling army

THE nation is shocked on the statement by Munawar Hassan. The people are justified in asking a question that if Mr Hassan is so sympathetic to the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, why he does not join it. Maybe he is elected chief of the TTP in post-Mullah Fazlullah era.

All sane members of JI are also perturbed. A senior leader of the the Jamaat, Farid Paracha, has said that Syed Hassan’s statement was his personal opinion and not of the party’s.

I request the JI’s Majlis-i-Shura to condemn Mr Hassan’s statement and demand his resignation. The brave armed forces and the law-enforcing agencies of Pakistan are fighting the menace of terrorism gallantly.

They are defending the sacred territories of Pakistan and their martyrdom is beyond any doubt. History will remain grateful to them and will remember them for all times to come. And history will never forgive those who are trying to belittle their sacrifices for the nation.

S. IRTIQA AHMED ZAIDI
Islamabad