Qadri calls upon India, Pak to fight terrorism, poverty; not with each other

20 March, New Delhi

Powerful Pakistani cleric Tahirul Qadri today termed the use of religion to drive terrorism as an act of ‘high treason’, and called upon India and Pakistan to work together to root out terrorism.

”India and Pakistan have fought four wars and gained nothing out of it. Now, it is high time that the two countries realise that they are not each other’s enemy, but have a different common enemy in terrorism, and put up a joint front against it,” Dr Qadri said here, addressing the closing session of an international conference on Sufism, organised by the World Sufi Forum.

The cleric, whose massive protest last year, had shaken the Nawaz Sharif government, noted that both the countries were spending a large part of their budget on fighting and containing each other, but they should be spending these funds on development.

”People are being pushed towards terrorism due to poverty. Parents, left with no means to bring up their children, are selling them to terrorists. It is high time that this state of affairs should end,” he said.He said ”international injustices” were also responsible for the rise of terrorism.