KARACHI, Oct 8: Sindh Home Minister Rauf Siddiqui has said that religious leaders can play crucial role towards bringing an end to the scourge of suicide attacks.

He was addressing a workshop on "Suicide bombing and their impact on society" at the University of Karachi on Friday. The workshop was held under the auspices of Karachi University's criminology department.

Rauf Siddiqui was of the view that the basic cause of suicide bombing was poverty or creed. He said that everyone should play his role towards curbing such crimes and that the religious leaders should particularly play their role in this respect.

The minister said that poverty and sometimes religious- political beliefs compelled people to commit suicide attacks. "Person having religious or political beliefs often resort to suicide attacks, owing to which the whole society and country get destabilized," he said.

He said that a large number of people at mosques, Imambargahs and other worship places had lost their lives in recent months in result of suicide bombings. He urged people to play their individual and collective role in prevention of such crimes.

"Islam is a religion of peace and it ensures protection of lives and properties of all individuals," he said and called upon religious leaders to come forward and guide the fundamentalists, who had been killing people in the garb of beliefs and faith.

In his keynote address on causes and impacts of suicide bombings, DIG Javed Bukhari maintained that the trend of suicide attacks was on the increase in Pakistan. He said that there were some 17 organizations allegedly involved in suicide attacks and more than 14 countries were their target.

Mr Bukhari suggested that universities should conduct research into the social and psychological problems of the victims, as according to him most of the victims were not aware of the preventive measures.

He said that the police department had prepared pamphlets to spread awareness in this respect. Such information as well as scientific equipment could help curb such incidents, he added.

In his welcome address, the chairman of sociology and criminology department, Prof (Dr) Fateh Muhammad Burfat said that there was need for initiating research on reasons behind growing suicide bombings.

According to him, without eliminating poverty, discriminatory attitude and social injustice the menace of terrorism could not be eradicated. There was need for providing justice to each and every person so that people could stop seeking vengeance on their own. The seminar was followed by a question-answer session. -APP/PPI