Christians Under Attack

Enforce Sharia or we won’t leave library: girl students

ISLAMABAD: The girl students of Jamia Hafsa have refused to vacate a children’s public library until the government enforces Sharia law in Pakistan.

“We want Sharia or we are ready to embrace martyrdom,” representatives of the ‘Students Action Committee’ told reporters here on Thursday. They said they would not vacate the library until Sharia was enforced in the country and action against mosques did not stop. They said they wanted an assurance in this regard from the president. The girl students occupied the library after the government demolished a part of their Lal Masjid seminary, which was constructed illegally on state land. The Council of Islamic Ideology had ruled that such mosques and seminaries built on encroached land were un-Islamic and should be demolished. Around 4,000 female students of the seminary have been standing guard at the library with batons in their hands for over two weeks. Earlier, the administration of Lal Masjid had said that the library would be vacated if the government stopped its campaign to demolish mosques built on encroached land. But the students’ representatives - Hamna Abdullah, Khola Abdur Rehman, Ume Aimen and Amna - said that they were ready to carry out suicide attacks if the authorities took any action against their madressa. “We are ready to give our lives for our religion. If any commando action is taken, it will be retaliated. We are ready for Fedai (suicidal) attacks,” they said.

Asked whom they would carry out such attacks against, the students said: “Those who are against Islam.” They said Islam permitted suicide attacks. “We are oppressed and an oppressed community has the right to register its protest,” they added. The students said that the government had demolished seven mosques in the capital, and as per Sharia, seven public buildings should have been demolished, but “we did not adopt a extreme step”. MMA President Qazi Hussain met the deputy administrator of Lal Masjid and assured the students of his full support. staff report