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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| News from Pakistan |
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| humble_muslim |
| 10/07/03 at 14:05:25 |
| AA Can one of the resident Pakistanis give us an informed comment about this? It seems to me that the Sunni-Shia troubles in Pakistan is another example of we muslims ignoring our own shortcomings. Violence Erupts in Pakistan After Militant Killed Tue October 7, 2003 11:43 AM ET By Asim Tanveer and Mian Khursheed JHANG, Pakistan (Reuters) - Sunni Muslims went on the rampage on Tuesday after the murder of Pakistani militant leader Azam Tariq, and tens of thousands flocked to his burial vowing revenge and shouting slogans against minority Shi'ites. "Shi'ites are infidels!" Tariq's followers cried as his coffin, wrapped in the flag of the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) party he led, was brought to a school for prayers in his stronghold of Jhang. He was later buried in Jamia Mehmoodia, an SSP-run religious seminary where three other murdered leaders from the radical Sunni outfit were laid to rest. The bearded firebrand, who was a member of parliament, was gunned down along with his driver and three bodyguards while entering the capital Islamabad on Monday. His death has heightened tensions between majority Sunni and minority Shi'ite Muslims after a wave of sectarian killings in recent months. Police and paramilitaries stepped up security in Islamabad, Jhang and other Pakistani cities. Three soldiers died and 27 were hurt when their bus overturned as they headed to Jhang. SSP, outlawed by President Pervez Musharraf in a crackdown on militancy after the September 11, 2001, attacks, exists largely unchanged under a new name. It had close links with the Taliban regime in neighboring Afghanistan ousted late in 2001. "This incident will increase violence in the country," senior SSP official Ali Sher Haidari told reporters in Jhang, 190 miles south of Islamabad, before the burial. RAMPAGING CROWD Earlier, police fired in the air to disperse a rampaging crowd of about 300 people who torched a filling station in Jhang. Protesters there also set fire to tires and pelted military vehicles with stones. In the normally sleepy capital Islamabad, sympathizers torched a cinema and smashed cars and traffic signals. Doctor Salman Adil told Reuters one cinema victim was dead on arrival at the Federal Government Services hospital. Witnesses saw at least two people with burns being taken away from the cinema building. In the southern port city of Karachi, small groups of SSP supporters threw stones at passing traffic, while small protests were also staged in the eastern city of Lahore and in Peshawar, near the Afghan border. Leaders of Millat-e-Islamia, as the SSP is now known, called for calm, aware the killing could provoke new bloodshed between Sunnis and Shi'ites, who account for roughly 15 percent of the 149 million population. "I urge all my brothers to stay calm," said Mohammad Muavia Tariq, 16-year-old son of the dead leader, addressing the large funeral gathering in Jhang. "The government must punish the culprits. Otherwise we know how to take revenge." Enraged rank-and-file followers were less diplomatic. "This was a bombshell for us, but we will definitely take revenge," said Mohammad Zubair, a young activist at the burial. The recent spate of sectarian violence in Pakistan culminated in July with an attack by suspected Sunni militants on a Shi'ite mosque in Quetta where more than 50 worshippers were shot dead. On Friday, six Shi'ites were killed in an attack on a bus in the southern city of Karachi. Hundreds of angry mourners burned tires and threw stones in the city on Saturday. Tariq's shooting took place on the day U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage met Musharraf for talks focused on the U.S.-led war on terror. The assassination underlines the failure of Musharraf's vaunted crackdown on militants. The SSP has been accused of involvement in a wave of violence between Islam's two main sects. But Tariq was allowed to contest a parliamentary election in October last year from his prison cell, and was freed after winning a seat. He backed the pro-Musharraf government. (Additional reporting by Tahir Ikram and Zeeshan Haider) |
| NS |
| Re: News from Pakistan |
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| Nomi |
| 10/07/03 at 16:50:09 |
| [slm] I agree with many local ulama (scholars) when they say that this is not a sunni-shiite clash but in fact an act of terrorism in which ppl from "outside" were involved. ~Sigh~ All of them were deformed by the number of bullets that were "sprayed" on them. inna lillahi wa inna elaehi raje'oon |
| Re: News from Pakistan |
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| struggling |
| 10/12/03 at 09:36:45 |
| AoA Only a couple of days before this incident, there had been a some killings of Shiites and Sunnis in Karachi that sparked some violence. This killing of Azam Tariq was done in a way so as to look like it was avenging the death of those killed in Karachi. There had been some killings of Shiites in Quetta and other Baluchistan regions as well. There are some theories that most of the Shiite killings especially in Baluchistan are being done by Taliban/ al-Qaeda members as they suspect Hazara, who are mostly shiites, to be siding with the Busharraf government in tracking them down. Some say it is Afghan/ Indian intelligence agencies. Wallahu Aa'lam What I can say (and pray!!!) myself is I dont think this as Shiite-Sunni riots. These so-called Sipahe sahaba are religious extremists, who dont have anything else to do than to blame shiites of apostasy. We have got same kinds of groups of Shiites as well. Burning shops and property of innocent citizens is not the way to avenge any body's death and especially if it is done in the name of Islam. Unfortunately, this is the picture of Islam that we give out to others. May Allah SWT show us all the right path, Ameen. Wassalam |
| Re: News from Pakistan |
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| bhaloo |
| 10/12/03 at 19:50:04 |
| [slm] [quote author=Nomi link=board=ummah;num=1065546325;start=0#1 date=10/07/03 at 16:50:09][slm] I agree with many local ulama (scholars) when they say that this is not a sunni-shiite clash but in fact an act of terrorism in which ppl from "outside" were involved. [/quote] There have been many examples of this in recent times (not limited to the Pakistan area, but one that comes to mind is a situation in Algeria), in which outside forces such as non-Muslim forces were behind these attacks and trying to blame it on some sort of secretarian division. |
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