Thaindian News

Lucknow, May 2 (IANS) Leading Islamic clerics here Monday hailed the killing of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan as a “major blow to terrorism.”

Lucknow’s Naib Imam Maulana Khalid Rasheed, who also heads the city’s oldest Islamic seminary Firangi Mahal told IANS: “This is a clear victory of peace loving forces against those busy preaching and propagating terrorism.”

The maulana said: “Osama bin Laden was misusing the name of religion and Islam to pursue his personal agenda. Islam firmly believes in peace and is vehemently opposed to violence and terrorism. Yet this man continued to thrive as some kind of self-proclaimed custodian of Islam.”

US naval commandos early Monday shot dead bin Laden at a mansion in Abbottabad, not far from Islamabad, ending one of the biggest manhunts in the world.

Rasheed said that bin Laden’s killing would also bring much respite to all those who had suffered on account of his indiscriminate actions.

While hailing bin Laden’s killing, renowned Shia scholar and cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawaad wondered if it would really go a long way in ending terrorism.

“After all, the manner in which bin Laden was created and allowed to grow - with underhand patronage of none other than the US - it would be too simplistic to assume that his entire Al Qaeda empire would crumble behind him in a split second.”

While welcoming the killing of bin Laden, retired army colonel Fasih Uddin Ahmed wanted to know why the US repeatedly ignored India’s assertions about Pakistan harbouring the world’s most wanted terrorist.

“Time and again India sought to emphasise that Osama bin Laden was being accorded shelter in Pakistan, but the US continued to turn a deaf ear to that.”

“No international terrorist of that level could survive in any country without an express nod of those at the helm of affairs. It is therefore now important for the US to initiate some action against Pakistan.”