BAGHDAD/ISLAMABAD, 31 July 2004 — Two Sunni clerics in Iraq appealed yesterday to the Islamic Army in Iraq to hand over the bodies of two murdered Pakistani hostages so they could be returned to their home country.

The clerics, from the Committee of Muslim Ulema, made their appeals during Friday prayers at the request of Muhammed Iftikhar Anjum, Pakistan’s charge d’affaires in Baghdad.

“The Pakistani diplomat just called me asking me to intervene so that the bodies are handed over to him,” said Sheikh Ahmed Hassan Al-Taha at the Abu Hanifa mosque in the Iraqi capital.

“The execution was sad news and we do not want to lose our links with the great Muslim country which has good relations with us,” he said during his Friday prayers address.

At the Um Al-Qura mosque, Sheikh Ahmed Abdel Ghafur Al-Samarrai made the same appeal, saying he too had received a call from the Pakistani diplomat. Anjum on Thursday confirmed that the two Pakistanis had been killed and asked for their bodies to be handed over to him so they could be repatriated to Pakistan to be buried according to Islamic tradition.

Meanwhile, people staged demonstrations while clerics blamed the Pakistani government yesterday for failing to save the two Pakistani hostages killed in Iraq. Pakistani Kashmir’s Premier Sardar Sikandar Hayat condemned the “gruesome killing” of the two in a statement, saying the act had weakened the cause of the Iraqi people.

“We share the pain and grief of the bereaved families and pray for the deliverance of the departed souls,” Hayat said, as he announced a donation of 100,000 rupees ($1,700) for each family.

Religious leaders held the Pakistani government responsible for the murder of hostages. “We condemn the tragic incident. Islam does not allow such things.... But it all has happened due to the policies of President Gen. (Pervez) Musharraf,” said Qazi Abdul Malik, chief patron of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam in Pakistani Kashmir.

In Lahore some 800 people belonging to the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) rallied to protest the killings.

Meanwhile, newly appointed UN envoy to Iraq, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi of Pakistan, said the execution of two compatriots by terrorists in Iraq would not demoralize his mission to the war-torn country. “This is truly a noble mission,” said Qazi. A shocked Pakistan condemned the killing of two migrant workers by Iraqi militants. Qazi called the killings “absolutely mindless and senseless”.