LAHORE, March 20: More than 50 religious scholars associated with the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), a conglomerate of 20 Barelvi school of thought groups, have declared the payment of blood money under duress illegal. In their joint decree with reference to the release of CIA operative Raymond Davis after paying blood money to the heirs of his victims -- Faizan and Fahim, they said acceptance of blood money under coercion was against the Shariah law.

They said if the heirs had accepted the blood money of their free will, they should come out in the open as apparently it was felt that they had been forced at the behest of Washington to receive the payment.

They also said the “blood money law does not apply to the elements involved in bomb blasts, suicide hits and drone attacks. As Raymond had committed crimes against the state he deserved death on charges of spying and damaging the Islamic state.”

They said those who forced the heirs to accept the payment “connived with the criminals”.

The scholars who issued the decree included Mufti Muhammad Imran Hanfi, Mufti Muhammad Haseeb Qadri, Mufti Masoodur Rehman, Allama Rafiq Shah Jamali, Allama Khalid Mahmood, Allama Bagh Ali Rizvi, Maulana Muhammad Husain Lakhani, Mufti Fazlur Rehman Okarvi, Mufti Muhammad Afzal Bajwa, Maulana Hanif Chishti.

Maulana Muhammad Ali Naqshbandi, Maulana Muhammad Athar Qadri, Maulana Naeem Javed Noori, Allama Nawaz Bashir Jalali, Mufti Zafar Jabbar Chishti and Maulana Mukhtar Ahmed Siddiqui are among others.