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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Sectarianism strikes at the top |
| 2004-05-31 |
| Someone has killed Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, chief of the great Deobandi madrassah in Karachi, clearly in revenge for the suicide-bombing of city’s Haideri Masjid where 18 Shias died earlier in the month. The police in Karachi, one of whose constables blew up the Haideri Masjid, is silent about the motivation of the killing, but that is quite ‘normal’ with a department whose personnel have been involved in assassination attempts on General Pervez Musharraf himself. Mufti Shamzai was going from his Banuri seminary to his house right across the road when killers on a motorbike shot him dead. His son, nephew and a driver were injured. Two police guards, which he did not think much of, were nowhere around. Everyone knew that he was a target, yet nothing could be done to save him. The motorcycles of death did some good for once Deobandi students of the Banuri Masjid came out on the roads in many parts of Karachi and indulged in angry vandalism, once again making a show of strength in a city already harassed by violence. They destroyed the police station in Banuri Town, making the police force run for their lives, and torched a number of vehicles. The violence recalls the anarchy witnessed when a few years ago another Banuri Town religious personality, Maulana Yusuf Ludhianvi, was done to death after his sectarian campaigns. No one knows who killed Mufti Shamzai but one can recall an earlier sequence of violence. Last year, massacres occurred in quick succession in Quetta and Karachi, targeting the Shias. When the government as usual was unable to apprehend the culprits, the killers struck in Islamabad and shot dead Maulana Azam Tariq, leader of the banned-for-terrorism Sipah Sahaba, along with his official bodyguards. Other suspects include rival Jihadis, Shias, moderate Sunnis, India, Iran, America, Musharraf etc ad nauseum Mufti Shamzai was head of the Banuri complex in Karachi. He was rated the most powerful man in Pakistan during the Taliban rule of Mullah Umar in Afghanistan. He was patron of the foremost Deobandi jihadi outfit Harkat-ul Mujahideen. In 1999, after his release from an Indian jail, Maulana Masood Azhar, a top pupil of Mufti Sahib, walked out of Harkat and formed his own organisation (now banned-for-terrorism) Jaish-e Muhammad. Shamzai was clearly inclined to favour Masood Azhar and became a member of the Jaish ‘shura’ (governing council). He was already a member of the ‘shura’ of Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) of Maulana Fazlur Rehman. After the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 a new situation arose. A five-member ‘coalition’ of the jihadi organisations was launched to avenge the American invasion. The coalition was called Brigade 313 (the number of warriors in the battle of Badr in the times of the Prophet (PBUH) and comprised Lashkar-e Tayba, Jaish-e Muhammad, Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami, Harkat-ul Mujahideen al-Alami and Lashkar-e Jhangvi. The coalition was said to be responsible for the killings of Christians in Murree, Islamabad and Taxila as revenge against America. Among the above-mentioned Brigade, three outfits are the backbone of the Kashmir jihad and will become critical for Islamabad if General Musharraf exercises the option of jihad in Kashmir once again. That is probably why the leader of the banned Jaish-e Muhammad, Maulana Masood Azhar, ‘disappeared’ from Bahawalpur before activists of the Jaish and Harkat al-Jihad al-Islami allegedly carried out the December 2003 attacks on General Musharraf in Rawalpindi. This was revealed by the captured leader of Lashkar-e Jhangvi, Akram Lahori, and widely publicised in the national press. The leader of the Harkat al-Jihad al-Islami, Qari Saifullah, a graduate of the Banuri seminary, was likewise allowed to flee to the Middle East. The Banuri seminary has lost a powerful leader. Needless to say, his death will be laid at the door of the United States. |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |
| #1 "his death will be laid at the door of the United States." Whose isn't? Line forms on the left and around the block. Please take a number. |
| Posted by: Billy Hank 2004-05-31 9:56:50 AM |