Lahore: A conference of Islamic clerics from across Pakistan today issued a fatwa declaring suicide bombings as "un-Islamic".
The edict issued unanimously by the Muttahida Ulema Council during a meeting at the Jamia Naeemia here is significant as it came in the wake of devastating suicide bomb attacks in the country that have claimed hundreds of lives
Suicide bombers linked to the Pakistani Taliban have struck at heavily guarded targets like high-value military installations in the garrison city of Rawalpindi and the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad.
While declaring suicide attacks as un-Islamic, the members of the Muttahida Ulema Council called on the government to prevent such attacks. The clerics also said the government should stop operations in Pakistans tribal areas and conduct negotiations with people there to end militancy, TV channels reported.
The Council said it was the governments responsibility to call for a jehad or holy war, and any person or groups that have called for jehad had acted by themselves and this was not correct. A majority of the clerics spoke out against calls for jehad by certain groups.
The clerics also said former President Pervez Musharrafs pacts with the US should be made public. At the same time, they called on the Pakistan government to support Iran, saying it was a better ally than the US.
