The deceased, Malik Mukhtar Hussain, was a prominent licensed organiser of Shiite processions and majalis in Chiniot. Police said that the men had entered Imambargah Qasr-i-Abu Talib near Chowk Shori Pipli in Rangraizan Colony on three motorcycles, shot Hussain, who was at a mourning session, and fled. Two boys, who were standing nearby, were also hit.

The injured were rushed to the district headquarters hospital, from where Hussain was shifted to Allied Hospital in Faisalabad. He, however, succumbed to his injuries on the way.

He had been shot several times in the chest and once in the head, doctors who had treated him at DHQ hospital told The Express Tribune.

The injured were identified as Muazzam Ali, 16, and Zeeshan Ali, 17.

Doctors treating them said that Muazzam had been put on a ventilator and remained in a critical condition.

He had been shot in the chest and neck. Zeeshan, who was shot in the chest, was also reported to be in critical condition.

Syed Shahan Raza, one of the participants of the session, told The Express Tribune via telephone that there was some disturbance at the police picket that marks the beginning of the Imambargah premises since the compound does not have a gate.

He said Hussain had left the session and approached towards the picket to inquire about the noise.

“When he was about 100 metres from the picket, the men opened fire at him and fled. Two children were also hit.”

He said a stampede followed.

District Police Officer Zameerul Hassan called it a “sectarian murder”.

An FIR has been registered against six men, including Chauhdry Zulfiqar Jutt, a noted local businessman, under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 780-A of the Anti Terrorism Act. None of the prime suspects has been arrested so far.

The DPO said that police teams had been set up and directed to raid Sambrial, Chawinda, Sialkot and Faisalabad.

He said City Station House Officer Naveed Murtaza had been suspended from service after the incident and replaced by Ghulam Abbas.

A number of protests have been held in the city following the incident.

Locals say that sectarian tensions in the area had risen since September, 2012 after a banned militant outfit’s former district president Hafiz Abu Bakar was killed.

Malik Mukhtar Hussain had owned a catering business. He is survived by a wife and a son.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 3^rd, 2013.

LAHORE: Abdul Qadir, came back to Moon Market after recovering from the severe injuries he received in the twin blasts that shook the Market in in December 2009. The shrapnel from the first bomb of that bloody night had pierced his abdomen.

Qadir is grateful to the doctors of Sheikh Zaid Hospital for saving his life to this day. He lost his 19-year-old cousin to the blasts as well. The 29-year-old father of three now sells shoes in the market situated in Allama Iqbal Town, Lahore. Although his family stops him from coming to work during Ashura because of the security threat, Qadir says he is not afraid of death, and life must continue.

The twin blasts at Moon Market was the first high intensity attack to have targeted the civilians of Lahore since 2006. Two plazas in the market caught on fire and killed scores. Most of the casualties were customers who were buying children’s clothing and wedding clothes. The tragedy was of such a degree that the family members of some survivors could only recover bits of clothing of their loved ones.

As the wave of terrorist attacks trickled down to Punjab from the Northwestern part of the country, between 2008 and 2012, Lahore was shaken with multiple high intensity attacks.

Most of the attacks took place from 2008 till the end of 2010.

From the Elite Police Force’s Training School in Bedian to the Naval War College on the Mall Road, security installations which were targeted in the past four years have now added many layers of security in the form of barricades, concrete blocks, barbed wires and armed personnel. Even taking a photo from the outside of such buildings is a matter of extreme concern.

The Express Tribune has compiled a list of the major blasts and terrorist attacks in Lahore from January 2008 till the end of December 2012. An attempt has been made to go back to the sites of tragedy to trace out and recall what had happened there.

_____________________________________________________________

Suicide bombings at GPO Chowk, Mall Road

The attack took place on January 24, 2008, left 24 dead. Most casualties of the attack were police personnel.

Suicide blasts outside the Naval War College on Mall Road

The attack killed at least 6 people on March 8, 2008.

FIA office on Temple Road near Mall Road

The office was attacked twice. First attack on March 11, 2008 killed 29 people and the second October 15, 2009 left 8 dead.

Attack on ad agency

On March 11, 2008 office of an advertising agency was mistaken as a safe house and targeted in a blast. The safe house was present in the street behind the targeted house. The blast killed one man and two children and critically injured an employee of the ad-agency.

Garhi Shahu blasts

Low intensity blasts near juice corners in Garhi Shahu created panic among people and caused minor injuries.

Alhamra Cultural Complex attack

On November 22, 2008 Rafi Peer World Performing Arts Festival was underway at the Alhamra Cultural Complex when three low intensity bombs went off at the venue.

GOR-2

A bomb killed one woman on December 24, 2008. The deceased and her family were on their way home for Christmas celebrations.

Sri lankan cricket team attack

On March 3, 2009 bus carrying Sri lankan Cricket Team to the Qaddafi Stadium was attacked by terrorists at the Liberty Roundabout.

Manawan Police training Academy

The building was attacked twice in 2009. First attack on March 30 killed at least 26 and the second attack on October 15 left 10 dead.

ISI Punjab Office

An explosives laden vehicle rammed into the gate of office of ISI Punjab on May 28, 2009, resulting in significant damage to the Rescue 15 Police office also. At least 26 people died in this attack and more than 200 were injured.

Alfalah Theater

A series of low intensity blasts on January 9, 2009 at the Alfalah Theater on Mall Road and Tamaseel Theater near Mozang Chowk on Ferozepur Road created panic in the city.

Elite Police Training School of the Punjab

The institute was attacked by terrorists wearing suicide jackets who initially carried out a Fidayeen attack in October 15 2009. Two policemen died in the attack.

Seminary Jamia Naeemia

The seminary was headed by an anti-Taliban cleric, Mufti Sarfaraz Naeemi. A suicide bombing on June 12, 2009 killed the cleric and 5 others.

Babu Sabu Interchange

The Motorway Lahore was targeted in a suicide bombing in the first week of November, 2009, resulting in the death of a police constable.

Moon Market in Allama Iqbal Town

The market was hit by two bombings leaving 70 people dead in December 7, 2009.

Special Investigation Agency in Model Town

An explosives laden vehicle rammed into a safe house of a Special Investigation Agency in Model Town K Block, on March 8, 2010, leaving at least 14 people dead and more than 80 injured.

RA Bazar

Two suicide bombings took place in RA Bazar on March 12 2010. It was targeted at the vehicle of military personnel in Cantonment. At least 40 people were killed in the attacks. The night of March 12, a series of low intensity blasts in Allama Iqbal Town harassed the residents. Six low intensity bombs were places outside residences of then in-service police officers and former army officials.

Peeru’s café near Raiwind Road

The café was targeted via low intensity bombs in the first week of May, 2010.

Attack on Ahmadis

Two Ahmadi places of worship, one in Garhi Shahu and the other in Model Town were attacked by terrorists on May 28, 2010. 87 people died as a result of indiscriminate firing and grenade attacks by the terrorists.

Jinnah hospital, Lahore

On May 31, 2010 militants entered the Jinnah hospital, Lahore and killed at least five people. The aim of the militants was to either escape or kill the injured terrorist who had attacked the Ahmadi places of worship on May 28, 2010. The militants could not get to the injured terrorist.

Data Darbar

The shrine of Sufi saint Hazrat Ali Hajveri was hit by two suicide bombings on July 1,  2010 killing at least 44 people and injuring more than 150.

Hall Road Market

On June 26, 2010 multiple low intensity blasts in plazas inside the Hall Road Market in Lahore resulted in minor injuries and damage to a few shops. Business owners of the market had received threat letters for selling “obscene” videos in 2009 and 2010 before the blasts.

Internet cafes

Low intensity bomb blasts exploded at two internet cafes in different locations in Lahore on July 17, 2010. The attacks were reported to be “warning attacks” for the cafes, to stop “vulgarity.”

Attack on Shias

Shia Muslims’ processions were targeted twice in the close vicinity of Imambargah of Karbala Gamay Shah. First attack at a Muharram procession on September 1, 2010 left at least 31 dead and the second during the Chehlum of Hazrat Ali (R.A) on January 25, 2011 killed at least 13.

Shrine of Haider Saeein

On February 3, 2011, blast near the shrine of Haider Saeein killed two people and injured 15.

Faisal Town

On September 29, 2011 a low intensity bomb attached to a motorcycle in Faisal Town, B Block went off.

Anarkali Bazaar

On September 30, 2011 three low intensity explosions in Anarkali Bazaar took place.

Lahore Railway Station

On April 24, 2012, a blast at the Lahore Railway Station killed four people including two minor boys and injured more than 50 people.

Fruit Market of Badami Bagh

On August 1, 2012, two remote controlled low intensity bombs exploded in Fruit Market of Badami Bagh area and injured about 20 people.

LAHORE: Organiser of Shia religious activities and license holder for the main mourning processions in Chiniot, Malik Mukhtar Hussain, was allegedly target killed by six armed men during a mourning procession which was underway on December 31.

Six gunmen on three motorbikes had barged into the vicinity of Imambargah Qasr-e-Abu Talib located in Chowk Shori Pipli area in Muhallah Rangraizan and opened fire at Hussain.

Two teenage devotees were also injured in the attack that took place during the mourning procession for the death of the 8^th Imam of Shias.

Eye witnesses told the The Express Tribune that although the imambargah compound does not have a gate, security was beefed up by police. They added that the gunmen tried to forcibly enter the compound and succeeded in crossing the police check point, eye witnesses said.

Syed Shahan Raza, devotee and eye witness of the incident told The Express Tribune via telephone that, Hussain had walked past him, moving towards the entrance point of the imambargah to inquire why there was a clamour when the armed motorcyclists opened fire at him.

Raza said he went to the DHQ Hospital with Hussain and that he had to be shifted to Allied Hospital in Faisalabad, but Hussain succumbed to his injuries on the way. Raza added, “Hussain had received several bullets including one in the head.”

34-year-old Hussain owned a catering business and leaves behind a young son and a wife.

The incident took place between 10:45pm to 11:00pm on Monday.

An FIR against the gunmen was lodged under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 780 A of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Station House Officer of the concerned police station, Naveed Murtaza, was suspended as a result of “negligence” in this incident. District Police Officer Zameerul Hassan said, “We have been working on this case since Hussain was murdered.”

The newly inducted SHO of the police Station, Ghulam Abbas, told The Express Tribune that the police have not yet managed to arrest any of the suspects named in the FIR, however, he said that the police was conducting raids.

The two teenagers, identified as Muazzam Ali, 16 and Zeeshan Ali, 17, came under fire because they were standing behind Hussain in the procession.

Muazzam was put on a ventilator late last night owing to critical injuries he sustained in the chest and neck. Zeeshan was also injured with a bullet that pierced through his chest.

Members of the Shia community of Chiniot told The Express Tribune that the attackers abandoned their bikes at the imambargah and managed to evade the police. They identified one of the attackers as Chauhdry Zulfiqar Jutt, a former Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan district-level leader. Jutt has a criminal record.

Locals said that sectarian tensions in the area had increased after the murder of banned militant outfit Sipah-e-Sahaba’s former district president Hafiz Abubakar in September, 2012.

In the month of Ramazan during August 2012, founder of banned militant outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and now the Vice President of Ahl-e-Sunnat-Wal-Jammat, Malik Ishaq, visited a mosque in Chiniot and an FIR was registered against him on charges of inciting hatred by delivering speeches that fueled sectarian tensions in the area.

Part of a disturbing trend in violence against minorities in the country, at least 27 places of worship of religious minorities have been vandalised in the last four years, according to data collected by the Church-run National Commission of Justice and Peace. The NCJP also records incidents of forcefully occupying land meant for worship places or occupying existing places, as well as murders of those involved in building worship places.

This year, three churches in Sindh, one in Mardan and one in Faisalabad were attacked; one Hindu temple was vandalised, one razed in Karachi and another attacked in Peshawar, while minarets of an Ahmadi place of worship were demolished in Kharian, Punjab. The perpetrators in all of these cases were “unidentified men,” except for the Ahmadi worship place, where the minarets were demolished by the Punjab police.

Senior office bearer of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Hussain Naqi blames this increase in violence against minorities on a “mix of absence of good governance, connivance and fear” on the state’s part.

The country’s Constitution defends minorities, their access to worship, and their properties; more specifically, both Pakistan Penal Code and Muslim law protect all places of worship. However, prosecution is often weak when places of worship of minorities are attacked. “Minorities are discriminated against in such cases, largely because of weak investigation on the police’s part,” says senior advocate of the Supreme Court Mian Tariq Ahmed. Kamran Arif, lawyer and member of the HRCP agrees, “Nobody is interested in prosecution of such cases.”

Arif adds that, “the law for protection of minorities’ worship places, for example section 295 of the PPC, does have room for improvement, but the issue is that the government needs to work on implementation of whatever little the law offers, to tackle the issue of impunity.”

Most lawyers agree with this assessment. The issue is not of poor legislation but of poor implementation and lack of political will to stand for the rights of minorities. “Politicians are busy with the goal of gaining enough votes and probably fear plays a part in stopping them from taking a firm stance in the minorities’ favour,” says constitutional lawyer Salman Akram Raja.

Two members of the ruling party, former Punjab governor Salman Taseer and religious affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti were both murdered for their stand on a blasphemy case. The state’s weak response to the murders of its own was widely criticized by rights groups. “Pakistani society has never stood up for a fundamental norm or rights collectively and such cases cannot just be fought in the courts,’” says Abid Hassan Minto, senior lawyer and constitution expert. Minto points out that judges also do not take decisions which would rile the status quo, partly due to fear.

Naeem Shakir, an advocate who has represented Christian victims of violence in Punjab, believes judges give verdicts that do not provide justice and lawyers take up cases against religious minorities because they believe “their status in heaven will be raised by such stances in court”.

“Only a particular brand of Muslim is considered a citizen with full rights,” says Raza Rumi, director of the Jinnah Institute, a public policy think tank that also focuses on minority rights and discrimination in society. Rumi adds that the problem lies in society’s attitudes toward minorities. “Law enforcement apparatus is also staffed with people of the same society, whose interface with Pakistan’s educational system and the “values”, indoctrinates them with identical prejudices.

Of late, the law enforcement agencies are weaker and vulnerable to organised militant groups, who infiltrate themselves in the mobs who attack worship places of the religious minorities, and when faced by a powerful adversary, the police also stop resisting the mob.” He stresses that the general public is indifferent to such crimes against the minorities because they simply do not know how to react, and because their identity is premised on Islam.

Organised attacks on minorities can only be dealt with, if Pakistan has a law on “violence against minorities”, just like there is legislation on violence against women.  “It is the only way forward,” says Peter Jacob, Director of NCJP. He stresses the need to also “define crimes against minorities so that such incidents can be dealt with as per law.” Jacob says that the posturing of law needs to be proactive, and the government’s efforts to mainstream non-Muslim citizens needs to reach a logical end.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 18^th, 2012.

The beefed up security follows in the wake of fifteen masked men’s attack on the Ahmadi cemetery on December 3, when they razed tombstones of over a hundred graves.

Those whose loved ones were buried there are bewildered. The desecration of his mother’s grave has shaken Abid*. Her tombstone lay completely demolished. Abid’s question, “How can anyone even think that shattering a tombstone with Kalima engraved on it, is a service to Islam?” has been met with silence by the authorities.

Cycle of hatred

This is not the first time the Ahmadi community in Pakistan has been left with a sense of alienation. Nawaz Hashmi* has paid a price for his faith for three consecutive years: in 2010, he survived an attack at an Ahmadi place of worship in Lahore. In 2011, Hashmi, along with six other men, lost his job because he was an Ahmadi. And in 2012, his late father’s grave in the Model Town graveyard was razed.

“We are conditioned to live in fear,” says Hashmi. His sick mother had shed many tears after her husband’s last remains were violated.

“The chief justice is seen to take suo motu notices of the most trivial issues, then why the silence on the desecration of our graves?” asked   Imran Ali*, whose father’s grave was also demolished. “Even our neighbours did not hear of the assault owing to lack of coverage by the media.”

The authorities’ cold shoulder was a haunting déjà vu: no senior politician or government official had turned up at the site of the 2010 attack on an Ahmadi place of worship in Lahore.

On the contrary, the Punjab police itself removed Quranic texts from an Ahmadi graveyard in Faislabad, which they said was to avert clashes in the face of threats from extremist organisations.

The Ahmadi community administration in Lahore says that the absence of a violent reaction from its side should not be taken as a sign of defeat. The DIG Investigation of Lahore, Shafiq Gujjar, assures that the desecration of graves is a high priority case for them.

History of hatred

Shahid Ataullah, a senior administrator of the community in Lahore, says that violation of the rights of the community in urban Punjab could be traced back to 1974. Narrating an incident, Ataullah says, “In 1974, the then chief minister of Punjab Muhammad Hanif Ramay, called the head of Ahmadi community in Lahore and asked him to tell the community to not retaliate in the face of any violent attacks.”

No hope against hatred

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) condemned the incident of Lahore grave desecration, as did other human rights bodies. IA Rehman, Secretary General of HRCP, added to the commission’s official condemnation by saying that widespread incidents of intolerance towards religious minorities and different sects of Islam suggest that Pakistan does not do justice to its membership of the Human Rights Council.

*Names have been changed to protect identities

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2012.

LAHORE: An FIR was registered in the early hours of Tuesday against the vandalism of over 100 tombstones at an Ahmadi graveyard in Lahore.

The FIR # 1096/12 was registered on instances of trespassing on burial places, punishment for dacoity, mischief and criminial intimidation and trespassing for assault or wrongful restraint.

Earlier, around 12 to 15 men, carrying arms and digging tools, entered the graveyard in Model Town, Q Block, between 1:30am and 1:45am and smashed tombstones of the graves, according to witnesses.

The vandals told the caretakers that Ahmadis, being non-Muslims, were not allowed to write the Kalima or Bismillah on their tombstones.

The armed men tied around 20 people – including visitors and families of the caretakers and the guard – with ropes and locked them up in the living quarters of the graveyard before starting vandalism.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) also condemned the incident and demanded the alleged vandals to be brought to book.

Twelve to 15 men, carrying arms and digging tolls, entered the graveyard in Model Town, Q Block, between 1:30am and 1:45am and smashed tombstones of the graves, according to witnesses.

The vandals told the caretakers that Ahmadis, being non-Muslims, were not allowed to write the Kalima or Bismillah on their tombstones.

“I was about to take a nap when I heard someone jumping into the graveyard. As I stepped out to inquire, armed men pounced on me. They snatched my gun and roughed me up,” Muhammad Younis, a guard at the graveyard, told The Express Tribune.

The armed men tied around 20 people – including visitors and families of the caretakers and the guard – with ropes and locked them up in the living quarters of the graveyard before starting vandalism.

They were speaking Punjabi and Urdu. However, their “leader”, a long-haired and bearded man, had traces of Pashto in his accent, witnesses said. They told the caretakers and guards that they belonged to a banned organisation and the Taliban.

According to witnesses, the whole vandalism episode lasted for about 35 minutes. The vandals ran away when a policeman from the Ahmadiyya community and a guard at one of their worship places arrived and fired gunshots into the air. The community members said they would file a case.

Police, community versions

Surprisingly, the SHO of Liaquatabad police station said he was not aware of any such incident. “I will send someone to look into this, when I get a call,” SHO Idrees Qureshi told The Express Tribune.

Ahmadiyya community spokesperson Saleemuddin said, “This is not some obscure village in Hafizabad, this is Lahore and the neighbourhood where the Sharif family lives. How is such an incident allowed to take place here?”

Background

In July, 2012, Tufail Raza of the Khatme Nabuwwat Lawyers Forum had approached the Liaquatabad police station seeking removal of Islamic inscriptions from tombstones at the Ahmadi graveyard, which was established in 1980. The police did not follow up on the application, but allegedly began pressuring the community to remove the text.

In October, the additional district and sessions judge had  disposed of Raza’s petition, asking the police to act in accordance with the law.

HRCP condemns vandalism

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), meanwhile, condemned the incident and demanded the alleged vandals to be brought to book.

“Last night’s attack is shocking because it did not occur in a remote village but in the heart of the country’s second largest city. The attackers’ success in overpowering several persons at the graveyard and completing the destruction in half an hour shows that the incident was well-planned,” it said in a statement.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2012.

LAHORE: Over 100 tombstones were desecrated by unidentified men at an Ahmadi graveyard in the Model Town area of Lahore early Monday morning.

Eyewitnesses said 12 to 15 masked men, carrying weapons and excavation tools, had entered the graveyard in Model Town Q Block between 1:30am and 1:45am.

At least five of the men were reported to be carrying weapons, including 9mm pistols and a bigger gun.

The perpetrators removed and broke the tombstones of graves. They also told the caretakers that they were not supposed to write the Kalima or Bismillah on the tombstones because, “Ahmadis are infidels.”

“I was about to sleep for a while when I heard the sound of someone jumping inside the compound. When I was about to check who could be there, a number of men pounced on me, started beating me and took my gun,” said Muhammad Younis, a guard at the graveyard.

Younis told The Express Tribune that the attackers had a camera and took his picture after he was tied up. He said some of the attackers had climbed in from the rear wall of the graveyard and a few of them from the front.

The removal of tombstones began after everyone at the compound was tied up.

Around 20 people, including guests and families of the caretakers and guard, were locked up.

Three armed men stood guard outside the quarters where all caretakers were being kept.

On a mission?

Eyewitnesses who were locked in the quarters said they could hear that the attackers were receiving calls and were informing the person on the other line that they had started their mission.

The men were wearing black masks and were speaking Punjabi and Urdu. Their ‘leader’ had long hair, a beard and traces of Pashto in his accent.

They told the guard and others that they belonged to a banned organisation and the Taliban.

Younis only managed to make one phone call to the community’s head of security guards, Muhammad Asif. He was also locked up on arrival.

Eyewitnesses said the entire incident lasted for about 35 minutes. The perpetrators ran off in a hurry when a policeman, who is from the Ahmadi community and a guard at one of their worship places, arrived and fired in the air.

Asif said the attackers also took cell phones, wallets and money from three individuals.

No FIR was registered till the filing of this report, but members of the community said they will file one.

Community to take legal action

In July, 2012, Tufail Raza of the Khatme Nabuwat Lawyers Forum had approached the Liaquatabad Police Station in Lahore for the removal of Islamic inscriptions from tombstones at the graveyard. The graveyard had been established in 1980.

The police did not follow up on the application, but began pressurising the community to remove the text. In October, the Additional Sessions Judge of the Lahore Session Court had asked the police to act according to the law and had disposed of Tufail Raza’s petition.

Idrees Qureshi, the SHO of Liaquatabad Police Station, told The Express Tribune that the court order and application was with DSP Legal for his opinion on how to tackle the issue.

Qureshi said that more than 30 individuals from the Khatme Nabuwat organisation had visited the police station at least three times to ask for the removal of the tombstones.

When the SHO was contacted by The Express Tribune at 11:51am, he was not aware of the desecration incident. “I will send someone to look into this, when I get a call,” he had said.

Ahmed Munir, a member of the Ahmadi community who has been liaisoning with the police over the issue since July, said, “We cannot remove the Kalima ourselves, because it is against our faith, but we requested the police to look at the law and not interpret it the way the anti-Ahmadi elements asked them too.”

Saleemud Din, spokesperson of the Ahmadi community in Pakistan, had a question for the authorities, “this is not some obscure village in Hafizabad, this is Lahore and the neighborhood where the Sharif family lives, how is such an incident allowed to take place here?”

The community says they will take legal action against those who attacked the graveyard.

LAHORE: Shivering from a mixture of adrenalin and nerves, Farwa Sajjad took up guard duty outside the Jamia-tul-Muntazir in Lahore’s Model Town, the evening of Muharram 6.

The petite 18-year-old was on edge after news reached of the attack on Rawalpindi’s Dhok Syeddan, which claimed 23 lives just hours earlier. However, when she saw a woman charging toward the gate of the Imambargah, knew what she had to do.

“Farwa went after her, thinking she is a bomber, the shock has left her with a fever now,” explained Zahra Naqvi, one of the three young women on volunteer security outside the Jamia. Fortunately for all concerned, the woman was not a suicide bomber but an over-enthusiastic mourner eager to hear the Majlis.

As Pakistan grapples with a surge in sectarian violence, hundreds of young people in Lahore, like Farwa are placing themselves in harm’s way amid growing doubt that the state is capable of providing security. The trust in the police to afford any kind of protection is at an all-time low.

Inside the small tent like make-shift partition, set up for the women devotees’ body search, Farwa took rest while her two friends strictly checked each woman and even their babies.

“Aunty you cannot bring a huge handbag and please next time, use a transparent bag for Niaz (food for distribution among mourners and devotees) too,” said Zahra Naqvi with an authoritative tone, to the slightly annoyed woman attendee of the Majlis.

“We do not care what people think about us being strict, this is for their own good and protection, they must understand and follow the rules,” Naqvi said, in between the alert body searches.

Meanwhile, Saba Syeda Naqi, one of the trio on duty, and their course mate at the religious school of Shia Islam inside the Jamia-tul-Muntazir, explained how the girls ended up working security.

“We were asked by our teachers at school, because after the Gamay Shah attack, we needed to protect our own and there is a huge difference between our security and police’s,” she emphasised.

“We cannot trust the police, you see they just fulfill the formality, and we satisfy our hearts through this security too.”

The Karbala Gamay Shah Imambargah, the main site of Shia Muslims’ procession, saw suicide bombing which killed at least 18 and injured scores, on the death anniversary of Caliph Ali (RA), on Lahore’s Lower Mall, in September 2010.

After this attack, on the following Ashura in 2011 and at the current one the community has made a concerted effort to call young volunteers for security.

“We were at the procession and the security was not enough,” said Naqvi.

“That is why my cousins and I volunteer in different parts of the city during Muharram.”

Right outside the women’s security tent on the main road, two male students of the Jamia, were on duty checking male attendees. On the main road, leading toward the Jamia, armed policemen were standing on pickets, but the final and thorough check was being done by the youth volunteers.

Lahore has had a Haidri Scout Volunteers group for years, but the primary job of the group had been providing first aid to the mourners during the Ashura procession, and then help distribute sabeel or food.

Nabeel* a 21-year-old volunteer for the Nisar Haveli, one of the central sites of Lahore’s main Ashura procession discusses the trust deficit towards the state.

“We do not trust the police’s body search at all. So we ensure that we should at least do those ourselves,” he said.

Other than the Ashura procession of Nisar Haveli which concludes at Karbala Gamay Shah, Model Town has been the site of another procession attended by thousands since partition in Lahore.

Rakhshanda Zaidi or Baji Rakhshanda as she is known by those who visit the Jamia-tul-Muntazir regularly is the organiser of security in the women’s section and looks after administrative affairs.

Baji Rakhshanda said, “The government is soft on the Taliban and groups attacking the Shia Muslims, there is definitely a lax in security somewhere, which leads to the sectarian groups attacking us.”

Media creates fear: Rana Sanaullah

The Punjab government has been criticised for their inability to control sectarian outfits like the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) with roots in the province and now operating in their midst.

Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah holds the media responsible for the prevailing fear among the people of Pakistan and especially the Shia Muslims.

“We have had bombings with very high death tolls in Punjab, but now the tolls are not as high, but the entire nation is scared, which is primarily due to the media’s focus on terrorists’ conquests.”

Sanaullah adds that the image of the terrorist as the winner and the security forces and government as the losers is constructed by the media.

“We try our best and have increased the security. The routes are well-guarded. But in an open arena, with thousands of people gathered at one place, ensuring that the security is foolproof is not possible,” Sanaullah says.

“It is not that the rituals of Ashura take place within closed walls, where it would be easy for us to provide foolproof security, but we do try our best.”

Sanaullah lamented that the policemen on security duty need people’s support instead of criticism.

Attacks on Shias to persist, fear analysts

Human rights organisations at home and abroad have repeatedly stated that the Pakistani state has failed to protect Shia Muslims.

Dr Hassan Askari Rizvi said that since Pakistan’s religious discourse is sectarian and since the state is in retreat in the case of terrorism already, the country would need a generational process to undo the process of religious orthodoxy in politics.

The matter of protecting the vulnerable sections of the society has gone beyond the domain of the police or just one government department, opined Wajahat Masood, Assistant Professor at BNU and political analyst who has written extensively on secularism in the country.

“Security cannot be ensured in a compartmentalisation. The political and economic patronage of every armed group needs to be taken away. Such views, that a group involved in militant activity in Afghanistan or Kashmir, serves a purpose for Pakistani state, need to be forsaken altogether.”

Masood added that the roots of sectarianism run deep, and the ensuing violence may eventually extend to all Pakistanis.

“Saying that just one outfit like the SSP is sectarian is not correct; every outfit with arms like the Taliban are anti-Shia and religious minorities. My fear is that yesterday they came for Ahmadis, the Christians, today they are coming for Shias and tomorrow they will come for me.”

Despite the imminent threat during Ashura, volunteers like Farwa and her friends keep guard with the help of one lady police constable at the Jamia.

As an afterthought, Farwa added, “I might be tired, but please do not think that I am scared because I am the servant of my Imam and I will not deter.”

LAHORE: A group of students from the Lahore University of Management and Sciences, with help from a few instructors, have been campaigning for the re-hiring of 16 members of the janitorial staff relieved of their duties on October 23, 2012. 

The incident unfolded when the entire janitorial staff comprising of 101 people protested outside the campus demanding an increase in their minimum wages, as announced by the government in July 2012. Eventually students joined in support and began campaigning on campus.

It was announced that the janitorial wage would be increased from Rs7,000 to Rs9,000, but after the announcement 16 janitors from the campus were fired.

Rasoolan Bibi lives on a 10 minutes walk from the campus and had been working at the girls’ hostel of LUMS since 1996, a time when she says, “the campus was like a jungle and snakes used to be found, but when it came to firing us, they just told us not to show up the next day.”

Students brought the plight of Bibi and the other fired janitors into the public domain by setting up a Facebook page called ‘Not just brooms.’

According to the students, the treatment of the janitorial staff on campus is objectionable.

“It is about having a clear moral conscience. This is something which happened right in front of us this is something for which LUMS is responsible,” says Jahanzaib Sukhera, one of the student involved in the campaign.

LUMS’ stance

According to the minutes of the open house between students and the administration, LUMS Vice Chancellor Adil Najam stated that LUMS is not responsible for hiring or firing of the staff.

Najam also stated that LUMS administration paid the sub-contractor Rs11,000 for each janitorial member, and was under the impression that Brooms, the contractor, paid the staff a “proper wage”.

Najam told the Express Tribune that LUMS supports the students’s stance and is committed to doing the right thing, but refused to confirm the raise of the wages, saying “I do not have the contractual documents in front of me.”

Brooms’ stance

Brooms COO, Muhammad Suhail said that as per the contract with LUMS, any government increase in wage taxes or minimum wages were to be incorporated in the amount paid by the administration to Brooms.

Suhail told The Express Tribune that in the past LUMS would incorporate changes on time, but were late this time, which prompted him to write to them.  He also emphasized that while negotiations for minimum wages were underway, LUMS issued a letter for the firing of 16 janitors.

He says he tried to convince the administration that the firing would affect the quality of the cleaning services, but to no avail.

Brooms, is responsible for paying EOBI and providing social security for the LUMS janitorial staff, but admits that it is not given to the majority.

Suhail said that the Rs11,000 paid by LUMS per person also includes expenses for providing cleaning material, a van on campus for ensuring quick provision of cleaning services and 6% tax per person to the government.

He also said that according to a verbal agreement, the salary paid to the remaining 85 janitors on December 1, 2012 would be Rs9,000 per person.

Faculty weigh in

Angbeen Mirza, lawyer and a former instructor of labour laws at LUMS, has been helping the students frame the janitors’ issue in context of labour laws.

Mirza feels that the issue also has an ethical and social dimension and it is difficult to believe that LUMS does not exert a certain degree of control in how Brooms treats the janitorial staff.

She added that as an advocate of human and civil rights, LUMS has a certain responsibility to lead by example.

Dr Taimur Rehman, coordinator of Political Science department, also supports the students’ stance.

Rehman says that if Brooms is violating labour laws, then   it is LUMS’ responsibility to do the right thing and not engage in business with such a company.