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Pakistan shelves talks with Taliban amid controversy over martyrdom?

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He said the US was trying to provide a legal cover to drone attacks despite being aware of the Pakistani nation's unanimous demand for ending them.

Baloch said former military dictator Pervez Musharraf, who had surrendered to the United States on a phone call, was responsible for the entire situation.   "The JI had consistently maintained that the US was at war with Islam and the Muslims after 9/11 and it was not lawful for any Muslim country to support this war in any way. The JI had consistently held this view and time and developments have vindicated its stance," he said.

Baloch said the JI was firm on its principled stance and would not yield to pressure. The rulers, he said, had chosen a wrong path which had led to dreadful results for the nation. It is the time for the policy-makers to review their policies that have ruined the country and the nation.

Meanwhile, the JI leader explained the logic on which he considers Hakeemullah Mehsud as martyr while the Pak army soldiers who lost their lives in the current military operations in the volatile tribal areas, not martyrs.

A Geo TV anchor asked Syed Munawar Hassan to explain if the Pakistan army soldiers who are killed fighting Taliban are martyrs or not. Hassan replied that nobody thinks that an American killed in this area is a martyr and if seen in this context, death of a soldier who serves American interests puts up a question mark for him.

He said if death of an American is a disgrace, how can his backer, be him an intelligence man or any other person, be called a martyr. He then went on to say that if an American is not martyr, then his backer is also not a martyr because they are chasing the same goal.

Munawar Hassan has strongly criticized the Nawaz Sharif government over the killing of Hakeemullah Mehsud. He said that the government conspired with the US and played a vital role in killing Hakimullah. He said that on clear-cut assurances of the government for a dialogue, Hakimullah surfaced from his hideout but at the same time the US in league with the government targeted and killed him. 

Tellingly, Munawar Hassan is not the only political leader who refused to give the status of martyr to the soldiers involved in the current anti-militant military operations. Few years back Maulana Abdul Aziz, the Imam of Lal Masjid in Islamabad said that no one belonging to the Pakistan Army could be given an Islamic burial if they died fighting the Taliban.

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Author and journalist. Author of Islamic Pakistan: Illusions & Reality; Islam in the Post-Cold War Era; Islam & Modernism; Islam & Muslims in the Post-9/11 America. Currently working as free lance journalist. Executive Editor of American (more...)
 
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