DAWN's The Review, a weekly magazine. 11 September 1997 Blood, sweat tears Counsel of peace Death and everything after Blood, sweat tears By Mahmood Zaman The non-party polls of 1985 accelerated the process and within two years it reached the culmination point when the first sectarian voice was raised by militants from the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam ranks. These young men were not satisfied with their leadership over the question of Namoos-i-Sahaba. General Zia-ul-Haq had got the Namoos-i-Risalat law enacted after which the JHI pleaded that Namoos-i-Sahaba was equally important. Many Shias took it as a move against their sect. By then the JUP, the JUI, the Jamiat Ahal-i-Hadith and the Tehrik-i-Nafaz-i-Fiqh-i-Jafria were the main politico-religious parties enjoying a definite role in the mainstream politics. They later saw a regular defection from their ranks, on religious grounds. The JUP was split into five groups. The Sunni Tehrik, headed by Maulana Saleem Qadri of Karachi is the biggest of them. Its followers are identified by dark brown turbans. Another equally big faction is the Dawat-i-Islami, whose chief Maulana Ilyas Qadri has been the Punjab president of the Anjuman Tulaba-i-Islam, the JUP's youth wing. This group is distinguished from others by the green turbans that its members don. The Punjab Sunni Tehrik is another group, though it has a smaller following, which has set up its offices in Unchi Masjid, inside Bhatti Gate, which used to be the site of Shia-Sunni conflict during Ashura processions in the late 1950s. Allama Dr Tahirul Qadri heads two breakaway factions of the JUP. The Minhaj-ul-Quran is a forum for preaching Islam and the Jamaat Ahal-i-Sunnat and the Tehrik-i-Tahaffaz-i-Namoos-i-Risalat are its political wings. The Allama has established a big complex, comprising a mosque, school and a library. The Dawat-i-Islami has recently purchased about 10 acres of land at Kahna, a Lahore suburb, to build a similar complex there. The organization has so far collected about Rs 11 million in the shape of donations for construction work. The JUI was split into the Sami, the Darkhawasti and the Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman groups during the period. But the division was on political grounds. Later the JUI's religious credentials were also challenged from within and the foundation of the Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) were laid. But it did not stop here. The main party further disintegrated into the Tablighi Jamaat under Maulana Abdul Wahab, the Tahaffaz-i-Khatam-i-Nabuwwat under Maulana Khan Muhammad of Kundian Sharif. The Tahaffuz-i-Ahal-i-Sunnat under Syed Abdul Majeed Nadeem and the Jamiat Ishaat Tauheed-o-Sunnat under Maulana Zia Ullah Shah Bokhari and the Harkat-ul-Ansar under Maulana Saadat Ullah Khan were the factions carved out of the JUI. Of them Harkat-ul-Ansar became known more than other groups because of their involvement in Kashmir and Afghanistan. The TNFJ was split into two groups when Tehrik-i-Jafria Pakistan, the main Shia politico-religious party was brought into existence. Allama Sajid Naqvi is now heading this party. But the move was resented by Allama Hamid Ali Moosvi who preferred not to head a group with the old nomenclature of the TNFJ. The Jamiat Ahal-i-Hadith was split into three groups. The Jamaat Ahal-i-Hadith was founded by Maulana Habibur Rehman Yazdani and the Jamiat Ulema-i-Ahal-i-Hadith by Maulana Abdul Qadeer Khamosh. The SSP was established by Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, Maulana Ziaur Rahman Farooqi, Maulana Eesar-ul-Haq Qasmi and Maulana Azam Tariq in 1985. Over the years it has spread its organization in all the 32 districts of the province where about 500 offices have been established. The number of their workers is said to be over 100,000. The first incident of sectarian violence took place on March 23, 1987 when Ahal-i-Hadith leaders Allama Ehsan Elahi Zaheer and Maulana Habib-ur-Rehman Yazdani were killed with six others at a meeting near the Minar-i-Pakistan. When was the Sipah-i-Mohammad Pakistan (SMP) carved out of the TJP, cannot be said with certainty. But it is generally believed that it was created by Maulana Mureed Abbas Yazdani late in 1993 after he was convinced that the TJP would not allow its young men to physically encounter the SSP. The Shia youth had been asking the TJP to take notice of what they called excesses of the SSP whose members were alleged to be targeting some of the Shia's beliefs. During the first three years (1987-1989) of the sectarian conflict, 22 people were killed and 271 injured in 22 incidents. The year 1990 saw an escalation in sectarian incidents when 32 people fell victim to assassin's bullets and 528 were wounded in 274 acts of terrorism. This number of incidents remains a record to date. The following two years registered fewer incidents but the member of victims went up. In 1991, there were 180 incidents of terrorism in which 47 were killed and 263 injured. In the following year, 58 were killed and 261 wounded in 135 incidents. 1993 was relatively a low-incident year when 39 fell a victim to target killing in 90 incidents. But the conflict deepened in 1994 when bomb blasts and shooting claimed 73 lives while another 326 were injured. As the law and order situation deteriorated, sectarian issue in the Punjab attracted the world's attention and the western states started pressuring the PDF government to move against the clergy which, to them, was fighting a proxy war in Pakistan. Chief Minister Manzoor Watto began a crackdown against sectarian elements and about 200 of them were taken into custody. The government move brought religious parties under pressure from their own ranks and they were immediately moved to establish the Milli Yakjehti Council. The Milli Yakjehti (national unity) Council (MYC) was born on March 24, 1995 whose first task was to the secure release of the arrested people. In turn, it gave the Punjab government which was then being weakened by an inter-alliance conflict (between PPP and PML-J), a peaceful atmosphere. The Wattoo government felt more than obliged. The MYC efforts brought a temporary relief, and terrorism showed a significant decline. In 1995 the death toll came down to 59 and incidents also decreased to 147. But the truce proved to be short-lived as the second half of 1996 witnessed the sectarian monster raising its ugly head again. The first six months of the year were relatively peaceful, but the next half year was one of the bloodiest in our history. It was during these months that a new element was introduced in the never-ending sectarian battle. The murders of the Commissioner of Sargodha and the Khanewal Deputy Commissioner gave a new dimension to the strife. When the year ended the death toll had gone up to 83 in just 81 incidents during which 200 were also left on the injured list. Two of the incidents were the bloodiest: 15 were killed in indiscriminate firing at an imambargah at Mailsi in Vehari district in August and 22 were shot dead in a Multan mosque during the Fajr prayers in September. Before 1996 came to an end, two important developments took place which caused defections in both the SSP and the SMP. As the SSP became part of the MYC and also entered the electoral arena, in 1993 getting elected Maulana Azam Tariq as MNA and its chief Maulana Ziaur Rehman and president Sheikh Hakim Ali (who was later inducted into the Punjab cabinet) as MPAs, its militant group broke away to form Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (an army in the name of its founder Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi). This breakaway group pleaded that the SSP leaders had deviated from the 'mission' of Jhangvi to make Pakistan a Sunni state. Its office-bearers were no longer presidents or amirs or secretaries; they were salaar-i-aala and salars (commanders) who vowed to fulfil Jhangvi's mission with "askari quwwat" (military might). The SMP militants were also opposed to their chief Maulana Murid Abbas Yazdani for his conciliatory tone at MYC which, to them, amounted to compromising on faith and fundamental beliefs. The new leader Ghulam Raza Naqvi, who always stayed away from the MYC, repudiated the SMP's agreement on the code of ethics which declared Khilafat-i-Raasheda and resurrection of Imam Mehdi as part of the faith. These splinter groups formed an alliance with other desperadoes, supported by a large numbers of madrassahs (seminaries) across the country. The two warring factions were involved in a fierce battle when 1997 dawned. The year proved to be far more nightmarish for the people and the administration alike. The very first month saw a bomb blast at the sessions court in Lahore which left 30 killed including SSP Chief Zia-ur-Rehman Farooqi, 22 policemen and a journalist. This was the most horrible act of terrorism in the history of sectarian conflict. In the same month the Iranian cultural centre on The Mall was set on fire (January 19) and the next day the Multan chapter of the centre was attacked, leaving 7 dead, including diplomat Muhammad Ali Rahimi. These incidents in quick session demoralised the police force. The police felt totally helpless in the face of an increasingly sophisticated network of specially trained and highly motivated militants. As the year progressed, the death toll rose to 200 in 37 incidents till August 9. While the sectarian forces had started targeting the state institutions in 1996, the following year witnessed murderous attacks on uninvolved persons. The murder of the Punjab secretary Usama Maoud near the Civil Secretariat on Feb 24 was followed by the murder of SSP Gujranwala Ashraf Marth, a brother-in-law of interior minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, killing of two doctors in their clinic and a senior teacher in financial management on roadside. An SSP leader was shot dead in a ward of the city's Jinnah Hospital ward and another SSP leader in district jail Faisalabad. SSP Ashraf Marth was killed in an ambush in a guerrilla warfare like attack which can be accomplished only by trained militants. Deeni Madrassahs: No one can deny the role of religious schools in motivating their youth on sectarian lines. Some of these institutions are said to be imparting military training. The number of these institutions has gone up over the years because of the financial incentive particularly coming from the Zakat funds. About 150 such schools were functioning by 1957. The number has now risen to 5,500 with about 4,500 since 1980. Half of them are in the Punjab. The Barelvi seminaries, more than 1,200, top the list. About 1,000 institutions belong to the Deobandi sect, some 200 to the Ahal-i-Hadith and 100 to the Shias. About 200,000 students, mostly belonging to the poor income group, are studying in these seminaries. Millions of rupees are being disbursed to these schools as government donation from zakat money. Many of these schools are also said to be getting money from abroad. A federal cabinet meeting in May this year was told that about 400 of the 800 proclaimed offenders have some connection with these schools. Besides 100,000 local students, young people from 36 Islamic countries are also studying in these schools. The cabinet was also informed that about 100 madrassahs were imparting military training. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is on record saying that some countries were funding terrorist organisations. He also talked of demands of dispensing with the government financial assistance to madrassahs. A press report said that 751 madrassahs were one way or the other connected with sectarianism and 810 of their students were wanted in cases of terrorism. In the early years of the sectarian conflict, the administration seemingly showed little concern. Later, successive governments pointed their accusing finger at the 'foreign hand.' Religious parties on the other hand, have been accusing "agencies" in fanning sectarian terrorism. The SSP and the SMP have alleged that government agencies were involved in aggravating the situation. The Milli Yakjehti Council also raised a similar alarm. By making scapegoats, both the government and, the religious parties have, in fact, proved to be ostriches which have failed to accept their failure and concede that the province has been in the grip of sectarian mafias. Successive governments, in particular, failed in taking measures to combat terrorism, though they could have done something with political cooperation from all the parties and groups. These governments have been in a fix about methods to be adopted. Time and again they have expressed the resolve for a political solution, but they have failed to appreciate that the delay was due more to administrative neglect. The seminaries were overlooked and sporadic terrorism was taken lightly. Police also failed to speed up sending challans to courts of laws. No meaningful court proceedings have been initiated during the terrorism-ridden decade. Even the bloodiest of incidents have failed to occasion legal proceedings. Two major campaigns were initiated for rounding up suspects ever since the problem began. In February 1994, the Manzoor Wattoo government arrested over 200 suspects, but almost all were released on MYC's plea. Fresh initiative came from the Shahbaz Sharif administration during which, according to police claim, about 700 from all over the province have so far been arrested. As for political steps, the Sharif government agreed upon a code of ethics on May 5 with all the religious and sectarian groups. But the government failed to rope in the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and the newly formed SMP, the real actors in the ongoing conflict. For all practical purposes this will be another agreement to end in futility. The latest measure of calling out the Pakistan Rangers and the Frontier Constabulary and banning pillion-riding once again is purely an administrative step. It exposes beyond doubt that the police are not considered competent and the entire administration, reshuffled several times in a few months, had failed in its task. Whether the new measures will help restore peace is yet to be seen. What is relevant today is that in the war of nerves, sectarian mafias seem to be on the winning side. [Top of Page] Counsel of peace By Mahmood Zaman But the objectives were to be achieved through purely non-political moves. When the Council was formed, the month of Muharram was around. Much before that, the Council was able to persuade all the organizations, including the SSP and the SMP, to sign a 17-point code of ethics which, among other things, included belief in Khilafat-i-Rasheda and resurrection of Imam Mehdi as part of the faith. Beside others, SSP chief Maulana Ziaur Rehman Farooqi and SMP Chief Maulana Murid Abbas Yazdani were signatories to the code. Making the rival factions sit across a table and talk issues involving the basics of their religious beliefs, was no mean achievement. In turn the MYC was able to secure the release of most of the suspects who, after a case to case scrutiny, were found to be no more than suspects. The Punjab government, which had grown weak owing to an inter-alliance conflict for political authority in the province, accepted the MYC's bonafides and agreed to most of its demands. Getting the arrested released was morale boosting for the new body whose credentials as a representative forum of religious organizations was thus established. This position of strength subsequently made some MYC leaders, particularly those belonging to major religious parties, believe that the council might emerge as a third and alternative political force. This in mind, the council leadership, which confined itself to purely sectarian issues in the beginning, started indulging in political matters and also made a strike call on the Kashmir question. This metamorphosis raised questions about the MYC's role, and the SSP and SMP pulled themselves out. They started ignoring meeting invitations and then came out with a strong criticism of the council's new concerns. It was at this stage that the motivated SSP and SMP militants decided to take on their leadership. But changing the SSP leadership was difficult as the organization had joined the political mainstream with Maulana Azam Tariq having been returned to the National Assembly and Maulana Ziaur Rehman Farooqi and Sheikh Hakim Ali, chosen MPAs in the 1993 elections. Thus the SSP militants defected to form Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, accusing the leadership of compromising on the faith and deviating from the 'mission' of the late Haq Nawaz Jhangvi. The Lashkar-i-Jhangvi was sponsored by Riaz Basra, who assumed the title of Saalar-i-Aala (Commander-in-Chief). Basra carries a head money of Rs 2 million for his alleged involvement in about 300 cases of murder and dacoity. He is considered to be the most dangerous hitman who is accused of masterminding a series of murders, attacking Iranian missions, killing an Iranian diplomat Sadiq Ganji in December 1990 and targeting government officials. He was arrested and tried by a special court for Ganji's murder. However, he escaped from police custody from the court in 1994. Ever since he has been a nightmare for the Punjab police. Ghulam Raza Naqvi, Saalar-i-Aala of the SMP, is also alleged to be a dreaded hitman. When arrested in 1996, he carried a head money of Rs 2 million for his alleged involvement in about 30 cases of murder and dacoity. He is now in prison. He is known for turning Thokar Niaz Beg, a village in the suburbs of Lahore, a no-go area for the police which failed in at least four attempts to break this Shia stronghold. After his arrest, the police claims to have recovered in a raid at the residence of one of his accomplices, 12 rifles, 12 shotguns and 700 cartridges. Malik Muhammad Ishaq is the man next to Riaz Basra in the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi with a head money of Rs 2 million. He is allegedly involved in about 30 cases of murder, dacoity, kidnapping for ransom and targeting government officials. Another 35 people of the two groups, all of whom carry huge head money, have also been declared as proclaimed offenders. Those arrested so far include Ijaz 'Heavy', Muhammad Ilyas, Mujahid Husain, Muharram Ali and Musa Khan of the SMP and Ghulam Rasool Shah (head money of Rs 500,000), Masoodur Rehman, Asghar Muawia (head money Rs 300,000) and Saifullah of the SSP. The Milli Yakjehti Council has now been reduced to an irrelevant body, losing its credibility in getting sectarian groups agree to its agenda. It has lost currency because both the SSP and the SMP have accused it of deviating from its designated goal of "sectarian harmony with a completely non-political approach." SMP Salaar-i-Aala Ghulam Raza Naqvi (since arrested), is on record saying that his party would not cooperate in turning the Council into an electoral alliance. The SSP leaders also levelled similar charges. But at the same time they also traded charges of being used "by government agencies." As such both the sects believed that certain government agencies were involved in fanning sectarian hatred.But Liaqat Baloch, the Jamaat-i-Islami's Naib Amir and the Punjab chief of the Milli Yakjehti Council, does not believe in these accusations. He has rather charged the PPP and the PML of hatching conspiracies against the Council and ultimately succeeding in marginalising its role. Baloch says, "When the MYC started working, the ruling People's Party feared that religious parties in the Council might work out an electoral alliance. The fear made the ruling party to work on sabotaging the MYC from within. It induced the SMP to dissociate itself from the MYC. For this Asif Ali Zardari himself tried to arrange a meeting between Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and SMP leader Allama Murid Abbas Yazdani. The meeting could not materialise and Yazdani was removed from the scene. "The PML, then in opposition, also feared that its failures in successive attempts to oust the government, including the Tehrik-i-Nijat, might make the MYC politically more important than the Muslim League. That was why the PML persuaded Maulana Abdus Sattar Niazi's JUP and Jamiat Ahal-i-Hadith leader Prof. Sajid Mir to enter into an alliance with them." Baloch, however, lauded the role of Manzoor Wattoo, for working with the MYC to make the Punjab a violence-free province. Wattoo was then engaged in a power struggle with the PPP's central government and found the MYC a viable front of religious parties to rely upon. The Jamaat leader is of the view that the government, because of its 'coercive' administrative steps, cannot establish its neutrality and thus loses the initiative for taking measures for sectarian harmony. That is why all the government declarations of entering into an agreement with different sects and other religious parties would prove to be mere slogans. "You see when they announced that such and such party has extended cooperation (a reference to the May 5 accord), it only produced bloodshed." Liaqat Baloch feels that a forum like the MYC is still the answer to sectarian terrorism. He is making an attempt to infuse life into the dead Council by contacting its members and getting them to agree on a meeting. [Top of Page] Death and everything after By M.Z. It was a two-marla, ill-lit home in a narrow lane of Baghbanpura where the family of an SMP worker resides. The only breadwinner was gunned down two months ago and the family is in a pathetic financial condition. Though they were never well-off even when Rizvi, an auto mechanic (names have been changed to protect identity) was alive. Talking to his widow in her home in murky surroundings was painstaking as she cried for several minutes before she was able to utter the first sentence, "It is the will of God." She was unable to tell who had taken her husband's life but said they were certainly the 'enemy people' who wanted all of them to die. She is, however, always disturbed to know (she cannot read) that so many people have been killed and mosques and imambargahs are being attacked with bombs. "Can any Muslim do this," she asks a question with her eyes fixed on a framed portrait of Rizvi, and answers herself, "No, not at all, anybody who is doing this zulm (cruelty) cannot be a Muslim." A visit to the family of an SSP worker, killed at Kot Lakhpat near his house about six months ago, was a rather fearsome experience. An opportunity to talk to the widow was not available because she is a purdah-observing lady. The deceased's highly motivated brother was first angry on my visit," but then reluctantly agreed to talk to a reporter.On the other hand, Rizvi's brother said, "Why are you asking questions on matters pertaining to our faith," and praised his brother for laying down his life in the way of Allah. "Death is preordained by God, nothing can be better if it is in Allah's way." He does not believe that killings in mosques and imambargahs are acts of cruelty. He thinks any act committed in defence of religion is a noble deed and that the person slain is a shaheed (martyr). He was sorry that shahadat did not come his way. His voice gets emotionally charged as he talks to me. But a visit to another slain SSP worker's home in Chauburji was not so embarrassing. He was not married and his grief-stricken mother kept on crying all the time I was at their place. "Why don't you write that they should stop this madness which takes away children from their mothers." Her son offered prayers five times a day in the Bilal Masjid and had no enmity with anyone; everyone in the area loved him. He was a brilliant student of FSc in the FC College. "The day (about four months ago) he went to the mosque for fajr prayers and then we received his bloodstained body riddled with bullets." The police are not proving to be helpful in tracing her son's murderers. Every time they are asked about the case, they say they were trying hard to arrest the culprits. Besides the SSP and the SMP workers, some other religious people who have apparently nothing to do with sectarianism are also being targeted, adding a new dimension to the ongoing sectarian tragedy in the Punjab. The murder of provincial secretary Usama Maud, Dr Saifullah, Dr Motiur Rehman and Prof. Ashfaq Ahmad is said to be the new element in the conflict. But, the SMP circles believe that they were financinganother sectarian group. A civil servant had a slight doubt that some of these victims had some sort of connections with either Harkat-i-Ansar or the Dawat-i-Islami which has been training youth in their seminaries for 'holy' wars in Kashmir and Afghanistan. Prof. Ashfaq Ahmad was one of the ablest teachers of financial management. When he was killed in front of one of his campuses he was only 45. I visited his rented home to talk to his purdah-observing widow who now looks after the management of the two institutions. Her husband used to tell his pupils about the life after and persuaded them to lead their lives according to the tenets of Islam. "I believe he was bringing about a silent revolution in the minds of the young people belonging to families of the upper strata of society." The widow terms the ongoing killings as a maddening frenzy "I have heard that the number of namazis in mosques has considerably declined; is this the sort of service they have done to Islam? "Students from both the Sunni and Shia seminaries are making things from bad to worse. Why are they killing one another, what are their demands for which they are fighting and subjecting the people to extreme untold distress?" As for accusations of financial assistance to a certain faction, she said "If we were so rich we wouldn't be living in a rented house. My husband was only a Muslim, he offered prayers at any mosque which fell on the way at prayer time. He did not care which sect the mosque belonged to." © DAWN Group of Newspapers, 1997 March 2001:Sectarian Killings in Pakistan Sectarian Killings in Punjab until 1998 BACK TO KARACHI PAGE