LAHORE: Various political and religious quarters have condemned the desecration of the tomb and remains of Hazrat Umar in Syria.

Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, condemning the incident in which the tombs of Hazrat Umar and his wife were desecrated and burnt with chemicals and the remains dug out, demanded the federal government immediately contact Syrian authorities and press for recovering the remains and their burial at the same place, and awarding severe punishment to those responsible for the desecration.

He said such deplorable incidents exposed the elements who wanted to spread chaos among the Muslims, and regretted silence of the Muslim world over this “regrettable, shameful and condemnable” act.

Pakistan Ulema Council chief Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi along with leaders of various schools of thought held a press conference here on Sunday to condemn the incident and urged the Organisation of Islamic Conference and Pakistan government to take notice of the incident and act against the elements responsible for it.

They announced observing Friday (June 5) as ‘Umar bin Abdul Aziz day’ to protest against the incident.

The clerics also demanded reopening of seminaries to save the academic year of around three million students studying at various madressahs.

The Sunni Ittehad Council, a conglomerate of 19 Barelvi school of thought outfits, has announced a protest on June 1 (today) against the desecration.

Meanwhile, Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan leaders Pir Ijaz Hashmi and Syed Mahfooz Mashahdi stated that desecrating tombs of the family members of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his companions in Jannatul Baqi graveyard of Medina by the Saudi government in 1925 set the trend for attacks on shrines bytakfeerielements across the world.

They demanded that Riyadh allow reconstruction of those tombs and graves.

On the other hand, a meeting of the Wifaqul Madaris held at Jamia Ashrafia here demanded opening of the seminaries, arguing that when markets and shopping centres could be opened on the condition of following certain standard operating procedures, the religious schools should also be allowed to function under the same conditions to save the academic year of the students whose annual examinations were round the corner.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2020