In the wake of army operations in Wana a debate has crept up in the press as to who is the Shaheed, the Jihadis or the army men killed in the operations?
Mostly the Pushtoon brothers and Ulema consider the Jihadis to be Shaheed and the army persons as having died in vain and not even entitled to Namaz-e-Janaza.
Conformists claim Jihadis to have died for Islam, whereas others think army men laid their lives in the defence of their motherland while Jihadis carry out bomb explosions and shooting of the innocent in the mosque and churches. I think it is a useless debate and the sooner it ends the better for all. "Baat chal nakli to bahut door talak jaye gi."
This is not the first time that Muslims have killed Muslims in a battle. Jamal and Siffeen were the first battlefields where tens of thousands of Kalima-go killed each other.
The dead on both sides were declared Shaheed as they in their simple understanding at the low level of a foot soldier thought that they were fighting for a just cause. Who was on the right and who was on the wrong side is still being debated today!
In our own recent Indo-Pakistan wars both sides declared their dead as Shaheed, whereas there is not even a concept of Shahadat in Hinduism. I am no Aalim, but would say that any one willing to die for a just cause should be a Shaheed.
And only Allah can decide about a cause being just or otherwise, not any human being.