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Activists from the Pakistani religious party Jamaat-e-Islami gather Friday, Dec. 26, 2014 in Islamabad, Pakistan to condemn the Dec. 16 Taliban attack on a military-run school in Peshawar, The school massacre horrified Pakistanis across the country. The militants, wearing suicide vests, climbed over the fence into a military-run school, burst into an auditorium filled with students and opened fire. The bloodshed went on for several hours until security forces finally were able to kill the attackers. Banner reads "We salute to children of Peshawar tragedy." (AP)
A Pakistani court has issued an arrest warrant for a hardline cleric who suggested the massacre of school children in country's worst ever terror attack was understandable, after he allegedly threatened people criticising him.
Maulana Abdul Aziz, the pro-Taliban cleric and head of the Red Mosque in capital Islamabad has been accused of threatening civil society activists, who this week staged several demonstrations outside the mosque, a police official and a spokesman for the mosque told AFP.
The protests were staged to denounce Aziz, who refused to condemn the massacre on a television talk-show.
Later Aziz effectively told worshippers the attack in Peshawar, which left around 150 people dead -mainly children, was a justifiable reaction to the army's operation against militants in the North Waziristan tribal district.
"O rulers, O people in power, if you will commit such acts, there will be a reaction," he told worshippers in a sermon last week, prompting further protests accusing him of being a Taliban sympathiser.
"Police have received the court order and we are trying our best to implement it," a police official in capital Islamabad told AFP, requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to talk to media.
Hafiz Ihtesham Ahmed, a spokesman for the Red Mosque accused civil society activists of pressurising police to register a case against Aziz.
"This case has no grounds, so we will resist any move to arrest Maulana Abdul Aziz," Ahmed told AFP.
Pakistan has described the bloody rampage in Peshawar as its own "mini 9/11", calling it a game-changer in the fight against extremism.
Halt executions: UN
Meanwhile, UN chief Ban Ki-moon is pressing Pakistan to end capital punishment and restore a moratorium on the death penalty the government lifted in terror cases following a Taliban school massacre.
Ban spoke with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday to express his condolences after the slaughter in the northwestern city of Peshawar last week that left 150 people dead, including 134 children.
However, "while fully recognising the difficult circumstances, the secretary general urged the government of Pakistan to stop the executions of convicts and re-impose the moratorium on the death penalty," Ban's office said in a statement.
Sharif promised that "all legal norms would be respected," the statement added.
The prime minister ended the six-year moratorium on the death penalty, reinstating it for terrorism-related cases, in the wake of the deadliest terror attack in Pakistani history.
Pakistan plans to execute 500 militants in the coming weeks.
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