Not afraid of death: Zardari

ISLAMABAD - “I am not afraid of death,” Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari declared here Monday.

“I am not afraid of death. I am waiting for my death and I have reached at Awan-e-Sadr by escaping death,” he said while addressing the International Conference on Sufism and Peace at his official residence.

Onlined news agency quoted Zardari as saying: “Some people are still using religion as a weapon for their benefit. We are facing their consequences at our borders.

“We are harvesting the crops of militancy which were sown in name of religion,” he said.

The conference was organised by the Pakistan Academy of Letters and is being attended by religious scholars from around the world.

Zardari noted: “We are followers of Islam but today there is a dire need that we should promote the agenda of Sufism.

“There is also need for religious harmony,” he said. “Sufism has a crucial role to play in mankinds struggle for a peaceful world.”

Zardari’s wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was killed in a gun and bomb attack as she left a political ally in the adjacent garrison town of Rawalpindi Dec 27, 2007.

Zardari is one of the most heavily-guarded individuals in Pakistan, where violence, suicide attacks and terrorism have seen a dramatic surge.