PESHAWAR, July 2: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has claimed that the Pakistan army troops are being used against local tribesmen in Waziristan on the pretext of tracking down the suspected Taliban or Al Qaeda fugitives.

Speaking at a conference organized by the Jamiat Tulba-i-Islam here on Tuesday, the JUI chief warned the rulers against indulging into the tribesmen’s affairs. “Instead of sending the army to occupied Kashmir, the rulers have dispatched troops to the southern Waziristan. It is a dangerous move.”

Maulana Fazl alleged that the rulers had handed over the command of the armed forces to the FBI and the CIA agents stationed in Pakistan. “When we advise rulers not to use our armed forces for the US interests, they call us as enemies. “In fact,” he declared, “they themselves are facilitating the enemies of the Ummah.”

He asked the government to respect the independent status of the tribesmen and honour their traditions as was done by successive governments, particularly about the maintenance of law and order by the militia wings of the Frontier Corps.

Maulana Fazl told the students that the US had two-pronged agenda of doing away with the spirit and concept of Jihad. The US and its lackeys were portraying the Jihad as terrorism and dividing the Muslims on regional, national and racial lines, he added.

He said the slogan ‘first Pakistan’ raised by Gen Musharraf was, in fact, a step towards isolating Pakistan from the rest of the Ummah. The US had been opposed to the Sunni Islam in Afghanistan and the Shia Islam in Iran.

At the same time, he added, it was opposed to extremist Mulla Umar in Afghanistan and liberal Yasser Arafat in Palestine.

Maulana Fazl said the US and its allies were silent over the genocide of Palestinians and instead they were putting pressure on Arafat to do away with “terrorism”. The US administration, he added, had been advising Pakistan to restore the confidence of Delhi, but they were not asking India to pull back its forces from the Line of Control.

The JUI chief said all the religious parties had rejected the government package on the religious schools. “We will not allow anybody to temper with the Islamic curriculum taught at the Madaris.”

The conference adopted resolutions against the role of the NGOs, self-financing schemes in educational institutions and official interference in the affairs of the Madaris.