Daily Times, March 25, 2005
SECOND OPINION: Sectarian tit for tat —Khaled Ahmed Urdu Press Review
The murder of the Sipah Sahaba cleric in Karachi was tit for tat for the killing of Maulana Ziauddin Rizvi in Gilgit. Maulana Azam Tariq who was ultimately killed in 2003 in Islamabad, trained in Karachi’s Banuri Mosque and was called down to Punjab to lead the Sipah when the Jhang-based leaders got killed after 1990
Journalists in Northern Areas have protested against their violent suppression by the warring sectarian militias there. In Gilgit, correspondents of national dailies and journalists writing in local papers have been attacked and given death threats. As a result, no news of any value comes out of the region which is engulfed in sectarian flames for over a year now. No one knows what the dispute is. All the country knows is that extremists from at least two communities are fighting it out there.
Daily Khabrain (February 2, 2005) reported that the murder of Maulana Haroonul Qasimi in Karachi was cracked by the police and some people were arrested. Maulana Qasimi was an important leader of Millat Islamiya (banned Sipah Sahaba). The terrorists who murdered him also murdered four member of Tablighi Jamaat which was not banned. The paper did not mention the name of the banned outfit to which the murderers belonged. The name of the banned Shia party was now Tahreek-e-Islami which is now part of the MMA.
The murder of the Sipah Sahaba cleric in Karachi was the direct response to the killing of Maulana Ziauddin Rizvi in Gilgit. Why strike Sipah Sahaba in Karachi? Because the Sipah has traditionally had its stronghold there, long before the other jihadi militias made their way to the city. Maulana Azam Tariq who was ultimately killed in 2003 in Islamabad, trained in Karachi’s Banuri Mosque and was called down to Punjab to lead the Sipah when the Jhang-based leaders got killed one after the other in short order after 1990. The government has stayed away from profiling the localities in Karachi but social workers who research them point out that the Sipah dominates such colonies as Orangi, Korangi and Machchar, etc.
Reported by Khabrain (February 1, 2005) popular religious leader Allama Ghazi Rashid of Islamabad narrowly escaped death when a car-full of terrorists fired at him. He fired back as he was ready with his own weapons. He complained that his Kalashnikov had been taken away by the police. A day earlier a religious leader of Sipah Sahaba was killed in Karachi and before that a Shia scholar Ziauddin Rizvi was killed in Gilgit. According to daily Din, the killers of Shia scholar Agha Ziauddin in Gilgit had computers and ‘sensitive’ instruments.
The Islamabad clergy is very hardline and has been linked in the past to Ibrahim Paracha of Kohat who represents Al Qaeda as a lawyer. It should be recalled that before the Gilgit killing took place, a group of terrorists attacked an Aga Khan charity in Chitral and the culprits were all traced to Peshawar.
According to Jang (January 30, 2005) a mob of 20 motorbike-riding youth shouting religious slogans attacked the office of GEO TV and vandalised it because the channel had interviewed the Israeli deputy prime minister Shimon Peres. The religious fanatics were also protesting another programme called Uljhan-Suljhan which talked about intimate problems of women. The police stood asides and watched while the vandals destroyed the offices. According to Insaf, the student wing of Jamaat Islami in Lahore gathered in front of GEO TV offices and condemned the programme Uljhan-Suljhan. Daily Khabrain reported that one Tahaffuz-e-Nazriya-e-Pakistan Committee announced that the attack it carried out was not against the interview but against Uljhan-Suljhan which discussed something that was against Islam. The paper said it was a gumnam (unknown) organisation.
The assertion of the Jamaat in Karachi is strong because of its dominance in the local government. The radicalisation of the Jamaat is caused by two factors: the one-upmanship of its leader Qazi Hussain Ahmad within the MMA, and the confrontation in the city with an equally violent MQM which was traditionally the party that controlled it.
Writing in Jang (February 1, 2005) Nazir Naji said that Muslims did not work hard to enrich themselves in this life because their real life began after death. To pay attention to national projects of uplift was a far cry, Muslims did not even think of providing for their children because Allah is already supposed to provide for them.
More appropriately, it is the conduct of the warrior race. The warrior race syndrome has been reinforced by jihad in the 20th century. It is the race involved in commerce that doesn’t fight because it has assets to protect. The warrior doesn’t provide because he is unconsciously relying on the concept of ghanima or war booty, which is the policy of wresting assets from those engaged in commerce. Allah is made the agency of provision but racial memory insists on war as the provider.
Quoted in Khabrain (February 1, 2005) ex-ISI chief Hameed Gul stated that Pakistan should give up the path of talking to India and embark again on the path of war with India. Former foreign minister Agha Shahi said that since India had not retreated from its position Pakistan too should not budge. Hameed Gul said if Kashmir was not liberated Pakistan too would not last.
Mr Gul places an unbearable burden of war on Pakistan, particularly after the option has been exercised and exhausted as late as 1999 at Kargil. The civilian rulers were averse to war since 1948 but the army was keen on it. Now the army too is averse to it.
Quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt (February 2, 2005) PPP leader Ms Bhutto stated that she had retained Yaqub Khan as her foreign minister for the sake of continuity but he had gone and challenged Indian prime minister Gujral on his own without any mandate from her. She said in any case Gujral had spoken to her on this but Yaqub Khan had not.
Ms Bhutto should remember that when she was allowed to rule (after the 1988 election) by army chief Aslam Beg she was made to accept a number of conditions. One condition was the retention of Yaqub Khan as foreign minister. He owed allegiance to this ‘continuity’.
Daily Khabrain (February 3, 2005) quoted Majeed Nizami speaking at an MMA seminar explaining that far from being prohibited in Islam, suicide-bombing was a form of ibadat (worship) and was recommended for all Muslims. He said the Kashmir problem would be resolved through war and not through dialogues. Jamaat Islami’s Munawwar Hassan said that retreat from the Kashmir cause by Pakistan had caused despair in Held Kashmir.
Suicide bombing is double edged. It is used by Hamas in Palestine. It was used by Al Qaeda against Ahmad Shah Massoud in Afghanistan two days before 9/11. It has been used against brother Muslims in Karachi, killing hundreds in sectarian carnage. Those who brainwash young boys into killing themselves do it for money. Those who kill themselves while killing others think they are dying for Allah. *
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