Attack on Data Darbar: Qari Hanif Jalandhari and Maulana Ahmed Ludhianvi should be arrested – a demand by the Sunni Ittehad Council
Protestors express their anger over the attacks at the Data Darbar, and call for punishing people involved in the incident. PHOTO: EXPRESS
Addressing a charged protest demonstration outside the Data Darbar on Friday, with over 3,000 emotional participants, the leaders of the Sunni (Barelvi) Ittehad Council (SIC) openly advocated violent revenge.
Several SIC members vowed to ‘seek revenge’ for ‘the attack on Sunni honour’ and urged violence against those responsible. Instigating the cheering and vulnerable mass of participants, Allama Abdul Tawab Siddiqi questioned, “Are you a devotee of the saint in name only or do you want to seek revenge and prove your allegiance?”
Tempers and emotions ran high as the protestors raised their hands in unison, heeding the call and promising to prove their loyalty. Allama Siddiqi then administered them a collective oath.
A masked gunman fired a round from the midst of the crowd to mark the end of Allama Siddiqi’s speech and as a symbolic gesture of the crowd’s respect and agreement.
Allama Raghib Naeemi (son of Dr Sarfraz Naeemi Shaheed) then took the stage and read out a list of demands for the government. He said that all the individuals responsible for the Thursday night’s suicide attack should be arrested and publically hanged preferably in front of the Data Darbar. He demanded that all literature spewing hatred against Sunnis should be destroyed and banned.
Raghib urged the government to protect the lives and properties of the Sunni community. He suggested that Rana Sanaullah should be dismissed from his position as law minister for his alleged links with terrorist organisations.
Moreover he demanded that Qari Hanif Jullendhari (head of Deobandi Wafaqul Madaris) and Maulana Ahmed Ludhianvi (head of Sipah-i-Sahaba) should be named in the FIR.
Other speakers alleged that the Punjab government and the Auqaf Department were equally responsible for the attack on the saint’s shrine by failing to ensure its security.
Qari Zawar Bahadar claimed that the government was promoting terrorism by continuing to finance various factions. He said that the government had banned various militant organisations owing to international pressure but had continued to support them under new names. He said that the government needed to give up its duplicity on terrorism.
The council announced a shutter-down strike for Saturday in a joint meeting at Jamia Naeemia.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 3rd, 2010.
Risk of sectarian conflict rising: Raghib Naeemi
Friday, 19 Jun, 2009
Naeemi’s son warns that his father’s followers want vengance and sectarian tensions could rise if action is not taken. — APP (File Photo)
EDITORIAL
Violence in Sindh
Violence in Sindh
LAHORE: The son of Sarfraz Naeemi, murdered by a suicide bomber a week ago, fears his father’s killing could be part of a conspiracy to foment sectarian violence, after he was murdered last week.
Sitting by his father’s rose-covered mud grave, Raghib Naeemi is still receiving a stream of mourners a week after his father, Sarfraz Naeemi, was blown up in his office at his mosque complex in the eastern city of Lahore.
Naeemi, 61, was a senior cleric of the moderate Barelvi branch of Islam and an outspoken critic of the Pakistani Taliban and their suicide bombing campaign.
‘I have tried my best to restrain followers of my father and I will continue to do so but we are fearful that this could turn into a sectarian issue. The government should take concrete measures to avoid it,’ Raghib told Reuters in an interview.
‘We will not allow the conspiracy to stir sectarianism to succeed,’ Raghib said later in a sermon on Friday.
Naeemi had unequivocally supported the government offensive and was an outspoken critic of Mehsud.
‘My father was targeted because of his fatwa that suicide attacks are forbidden in Islam,’ said Raghib, who is now running Naeemi’s religious school. ‘My father believed that this is the last war for the survival of Pakistan. If our army or government lost this war then we would lose Pakistan,’ he added.
Naeemi’s death has been widely condemned, even by some Deobandi rivals. Some people suspect his murder might have been aimed at inciting sectarian violence in a country racked by rivalry between militants from the Sunni and minority Shiite faiths.
‘After the death of Sarfraz Naeemi, the Barelvi-Deobandi issue has sharpened,’ said political analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi. ‘If such incidents happen again then I’m afraid the situation could be aggravated,’ he said.
The offensive against the Taliban has widespread public support and Rizvi said Naeemi’s killing had bolstered that. ‘I was shocked to learn of the death of Mufti Naeemi,” said Lahore grocery-shop owner Iqbal Ahmed, using a title for a religious scholar. Since his death I fully support the operation against the Taliban because Mufti Naeemi never preached hatred.’
But Naeemi’s murder has also spread fear among his moderate colleagues. ‘I myself have received threats,’ said Muneeb-ur-Rehman, a scholar who heads a Barelvi alliance of religious schools.
‘I have no security at home or at my madrasah,’ he told Reuters by telephone from Karachi, adding that alliance leaders were due to meet on Saturday in Lahore to discuss the danger.
A government official involved with security said authorities were providing protection but clerics had to take care. ‘They should keep a low profile … restrict their movements and keep their travel plans confidential,’ said the official. — Reuters
http://www.dawnnews.net/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/19-risk-of-sectarian-conflict-rising-raghib-naeemi-05
More stupidities of Mullah Muneeb ur Rehman.
While addressing a Live News Conference [GEOTV] this so-called Scholar Issue a Fatwa “that killing Muslim when he is in Salat is Haram” – What does that mean? You can any Muslim who is not in the State of Namaz [Salat] and this latest Fatwa of Muneeb ur Rehman is instigating to kill more Non-Muslims in Pakistan.
Don’t give aid to JuD: Sunni leader
PTI, Jul 4, 2010,
LAHORE: A leading Pakistani religious leader has asked authorities to withdraw millions of rupees provided to the Jamaat-ud-Dawah as aid for its “welfare projects” as the group has links with extremists.
Expressing outrage at Friday’s suicide attack on the Data Darbar shrine in Lahore, Sunni Tehrik leader Haji Hanif Tayyab said banned groups were being allowed to work under new names.
He demanded that the government should make public details about the funding of these groups.
Tayyab, a former federal minister, said: “The JuD has links with extremists and the government has given the group millions of rupees at the behest of the US and this funding must be withdrawn.”
The Punjab government was at the centre of a controversy recently after official documents showed it had provided over Rs 82 million to the group and its allied organisations in the budget for 2009-10.
Officials claimed the funds were meant for JuD’s educational and welfare projects that were taken over by the provincial government in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
India has accused the JuD and its chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Tayyab said the same elements that attacked Rehman Baba’s shrine in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province last year were involved in the suicide bombing of Data Darbar.
He alleged the Punjab government had concealed details of a cache of arms that was recently seized in the Raiwind area of Lahore. He further alleged that some elements in the electronic media were delivering provocative speeches against mausoleums of saints.
These elements should be taken to task and an FIR should be registered against them, he said.
The Sunni Tehrik sought the expulsion of a religious party, which it did not name, from the Pakistan People’s Party-led coalition at the centre and the removal of Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah from his post for his links with the banned Sipha-e-Sahaba, an anti-Shia terror group.
The Sunni Tehrik alleged that the Punjab government is playing into the hands of terrorists while the federal government is hostage to a religious party that is acting as a “political blackmailer” and “abetting those who occupy mosques of other schools of thought and convert these into terrorist camps”.
Tayyab said religious leaders wanted only Barelvi Sunni prayer leaders to be appointed in state-funded mosques to prevent the places of worship from becoming “recruiting camps of extremists”.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Pakistan/Dont-give-aid-to-JuD-Sunni-leader-/articleshow/6125812.cms
Black Day in Rawalpindi
Charge Shahbaz, Sanaullah with Data Darbar attacks: devotees
By Tahir Rashid
July 04, 2010
RAWALPINDI: Like other parts of the country, Black Day was observed in Rawalpindi as the city on Saturday witnessed a partial shutter down and a series of protests against Data Darbar attacks which claimed almost 44 lives on Thursday night.
On the second day running, several religious and social organizations along with traders including Jammiat Ulma-e-Pakistan (Noorani Group), Anjuman Talba-e-Islam, Sunni Ittehad Council, Pakistan Sunni Ittehad , Jammat Ahl-e- Sunnat, Sunni Tehreek and Makazi Anjuman Tajran continued serial of protest.
Speakers at the rallies demand strict action against terrorists and that their hideouts be demolished. They denounced the Punjab government for not taking extra ordinary security measures at the shrine despite timely warnings.
They demanded FIR of the blasts at Data Darbar should be registered against Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif and Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah as both the leaders expressed their support publicly for defunct Jihadi outfits.
They organized different rallies and convened special meetings to condemn the incident.
Pakistan Sunni Ittehad , Jamia Rizvia and Markazi Anjuman Tajran jointly organized a rally in which hundreds of workers , traders and people from different walks of life participated . The protestors marched from Chadni Chowk to Committee Chowk. The demonstration was led by Pir Syed Haseen-ud-Din Shah.
They were shouting slogans against the US, federal and provincial governments. The participants were also holding up banners, placards and posters reading slogans against terrorism and asking the government to take immediate and solid measures to curb subversive activities.
They burnt tyres at Chandni Chowk, Asghar Mall Road Chowk , Kohati Bazaar Turning and Committee Chowk. They forcibly shut down shops at some places on Murree Road.
Sunni Ittehad Council also held a rally at Banni Chowk, while Jammat Ahl-e-Sunnat arranged another demonstration at Chungi No 22. In addition, a special meeting was summoned by different organizations.
Traders hold a protest at Fowara Chowk where they burnt tyres. Heavy contingent of police was deployed to avoid any untoward situation.
The speakers on the occasion said that the incident was result of becoming a frontline ally to the US in war against terrorism. They urged the government to revise its policy and withdraw the support of America to avoid such incidents in future.
The main shopping centers of the city like Moti Bazaar, Raja Bazzar, Trunk Bazzzar, Murree Road and Bara Market remained closed, however the shops at Saddar, Bank Road, Kashmir Road and Haider Road were open.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\07\04\story_4-7-2010_pg11_3
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