ISLAMABAD: Pakistani President Dr. Arif Alvi has called on the country’s Islamic scholars and clerics to play their role in “discouraging extremism, terrorism, and sectarianism,” state-run APP reported after 101 people were killed in a suicide bombing in the country’s northwestern city of Peshawar this week.

Among the dead, at least 97 were policemen who had gathered for afternoon prayers at the mosque located inside a police compound in the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Monday.

Militants have intensified attacks against security forces in Pakistan since a fragile truce between the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, and the government broke down in November last year. The TTP has denied responsibility for the mosque attack, which no group has claimed so far.

“Ulema and Mashaikh of the country should play their role in bringing positive social change. Extremism, terrorism, and sectarianism need to be discouraged in society,” a statement from the President House quoted Alvi as saying at a meeting with top scholars. 

“Ulema should make concerted efforts to remove divisions from society and should promote unity and solidarity within the country,” the statement said, adding that young Pakistanis should be educated on tolerance, forgiveness, and peace in line with the sunnah of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

The president told the scholars the challenges of militancy required a “comprehensive action plan” on counter-extremism and counter-terrorism by the ulema. He said it was the responsibility of religious scholars to disseminate the true teachings of Islam among the people, especially the youth of the country.

Last week, noted Pakistani religious scholar Mufti Taqi Usmani issued an edict saying armed activity against the state was “rebellion and haram according to Islamic law.”

“Fighting against national security agencies and carrying out anti-state activities come under mutiny and it has nothing to do with Jihad,” he said.