Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad on Tuesday opposed the recent deployment of troops in the troubled districts of NWFP, saying the NWFP chief minister should have taken the MMA leaders into confidence before requesting troops from the federal government. “The MMA was not taken into confidence. Army deployment will trigger hatred among people in the province,” Qazi told reporters after a Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) meeting at Markaz-e-Islami. He said it was questionable that Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani had requested the federal government to deploy troops in the province to control the situation in Malakand. He said the JI had never supported military deployment in NWFP and FATA, and had always urged for the resolution of tribal problems through dialogue. Qazi said security forces had been deployed in Dir and Swat districts when people were mourning the casualties of the Lal Masjid operation. “Suicide attacks in Matta Bazaar, Swat and Dera Ismail Khan were in response to the killings of innocent students in Islamabad,” he said. He said local elders in several districts of Malakand division had shown their strong determination to curb the emerging insurgency in the region through a tribal jirga. He said a military operation would not solve the issue and demanded an immediate withdrawal of the army from NWFP to avoid further casualties.
Concerning Lal Masjid, Qazi said the nation had not expected such “brutal killings” of “innocent students” at the hands of their own army. “The bloody ‘Operation Silence’ has created a gulf between people and the army,” he said, while demanding Lal Masid and Jamia Hafsa be reconstructed. He said thousands of MMA party workers would enter the Lal Masjid compound by force to offer Friday prayers on July 20 if their demands were not met. He also said the party would soon move the Supreme Court against the government for the killings during Operation Silence.
Former senior minister and JI NWFP Ameer Sirajul Haq, Finance Minister Shah Raz Khan, Social Welfare and WomenÂ’s Development Minister Kashif Azam, Health Minister Inayatullah Khan, MMA Peshawar President Hakim Abdul Waheed and Science and Technology Minister Hussain Ahmad Kanju also attended the briefing. Answering a question, Sirajul Haq said the NWFP chief minister should have informed the JI leaders of the army deployment. He said the presence of the army was prompting public anger in the area.