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Malik Ishaq and the state
Ishaq is a symbol of the state’s surrender to terrorists;he re-embraced SSP as it represents a centre of power.
Police officers don’t want to be named when they offer information about Ishaq. PHOTO: EXPRESS/FILE
The scourge of Pakistan’s Shia community, Malik Ishaq of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) — an offshoot of ‘renamed’ Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), which is in a legal penumbra of state ban — has been arrested upon his return from Saudi Arabia, where he could have gone to perform a religious ritual but could also have touched base there with the ‘donors’ who finance the massacre of the Shia in Pakistan. The charges against him of hate speech followed by sectarian killings are quite serious. He was acquitted of the same category last year and let out of jail after remaining there for 14 years.
He was wanted in connection with a case at a housing colony under Section 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the Pakistan Penal Code. The speech was against the Shia sect in Kamahan village on August 9 and he had avoided arrest by going underground. He had done this in many places in the country; in Chiniot, an incident of firing on a mosque followed a speech by Ishaq.
Police officers don’t want to be named when they offer information about Ishaq, even the bit about Ishaq leaving the country without informing the police — in violation of the Anti-Terrorism Act. Clearly, the officers are scared of getting killed by SSP activists as well as the state hierarchy, which is alleged to have a ‘special relationship’ with him as a warrior of the sectarian organisations based in Punjab. One officer let it be known that “Ishaq had remained in touch with a couple of provincial ministers”. The man was involved in over 40 cases relating to sectarianism and terrorism in which 70 people, most of them Shias, were killed.
He is now being reported as a member of the SSP, probably to remove him from the heat produced by a recent video released by his LeJ gang announcing that almost all of the Shia killed so far in the length and breadth of the country were its victims. The LeJ proudly claims affiliation with the Afghan Taliban led by Mullah Omar — who the world says is living in Karachi — and al Qaeda, whose Egyptian leader Aiman al Zawahiri the world suspects could also be living somewhere in Pakistan. This means Ishaq is a part of the elements that have blown Pakistan’s internal sovereignty to smithereens and could be ruling the streets of Karachi.
In February 2012, a spokesperson for the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), Yahya Mujahid, told this newspaper that Ishaq was present on the stage of a Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC) rally in Multan. An ex-ISI boss, Hamid Gul, who attended the rally denied that Ishaq was present on the occasion and charged that a photo revealing the truth was actually a ‘doctored one’. The DPC held long marches at great expense to the JuD’s chief Hafiz Saeed — with American bounty on him — to protest against the reopening of the Nato supply route and was rumoured to be supported by elements within the ‘deep state’. After the final retirement of ISI chief General Shuja Pasha and after the excessively threatening posture of the non-state actors in the DPC, the policy of fielding the extremists was modified, throwing the DPC in an eclipse which could actually be a lull before a big terminal storm in luckless Pakistan.
Malik Ishaq is today the symbol of the state’s surrender to terrorists. He has re-embraced the SSP because it represents one of the centres of power spawned by the state policy of proxy jihad. Provincial governments are vying with one another to reach a modus vivendi with these power centres to save their politicians from being assassinated. In Punjab, where such a new ‘relationship’ has been set up to ‘sanitise’ the elections in south Punjab, police chiefs are in the habit of blaming terrorism committed by these centres of power on Israel and India. Malik Ishaq is a challenge to Pakistan’s sovereignty that Pakistan may be reluctant to face.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 3rd, 2012.
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Reader Comments (48)
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He creates diorder in the name of Allah.very sad.
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@Qasim…thats called creating fitna….
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One of the biggest enemies of Pakistan. I am saying this after watching his hateful speeches on youtube in which he’s clearly inciting sectarian violence.
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Nobody is going to touch Malik Ishaq as he has too many powerful backers as well as public support in this country. Remember 50% of Sunni population consider Shia non- muslims. We will continue to suffer him and his ilk. This unfortunately is our destiny…..
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He should be hanged, he is the biggest terrorist in Pakistan.
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Most Pakistani Mullahs are a challenge to Pakistan’s sovereignty that Pakistan may be reluctant to face…
Allah help Pakistan!
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He and his team all should be shot.
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his Saudi donors are funding killers of Pakistani citizens of shiite faith but attack on GHQ and Sri Lankan cricket team seems to be serious too and the state considers the Saudi regime as friends of Pakistan – isn’t that disturbingly amazing ? chief justice of Pakistan’s soft corner for these terrorists also makes him untouchable.
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Our police officers are scared of his gang. This just shows who is the boss in Pakistan. Either our higher agencies are helping Malik Ishaq or they are all incompetent
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Hate to compare with India, as if it is a benchmark. But just last week powerful politicos, including a legislator were sentenced to 14 to 28 years in prison for rioting and instigating violence against Muslims in Gujarat. When will we start securing justice for at least some members of our minority communities?
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He is breaking any number of laws plus all kinds of human rigts are being challened in his speeches. But the corrupt elte of our country need him so he is still here.
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This man is responsible for the murder of hundreds of innocent people just because they belong to a different school of thought. Our judicial system is a joke, it frees the hate mongers and terrorists. Lashkar e Jhangavi is a terrorist organization, and has its sympathies with the number one terrorist network in the world called Al-Qaeda. If Pakistan can not control Lashkar e Jhangvi, then it can not blame the rest of the world when it is called the center of terrorism.
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Malik Ishaq is THE STATE.
Period.
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I support Malik Ishaq. Just my opinion
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dont hate the player, hate the game!!!
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@zeeshan sheikh: You should be ashamed of supporing a killer of humanity. Don’t u remember the saying of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.W) that one who kills an innocent human being is equal to killing whole humanity”.Recommend
@zeeshan sheikh:
What a pity. Just my opinion.
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No body from outside Pakistan can destroy it, it will be harmed by people like these. We give them chanda one day and second day mourn the death of our own not knowing that our money was used to built the bomb…….. WAKE UP PAKISTAN!
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He roams free and a little girl sits in prison. That sums up Pakistan and it’s current condition.
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@Only Pkaitsnai
you and your humanity confined to particular peoples and ideology.
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Thanks to our judicial system who has let out such a brute out of prison on flimsy ground. When our police officers, prosecutors, and lower judiciary put all at stake and sentence such criminals our superior judiciary look the other way round and free these terrorists one by one on mere technical grounds. People like Malik Ishaq are self confessed killers of shias and the surge in killings of shias in all parts of ourf country particularly Quetta and Gilgit Baltistan can be attributed to the relase of such demons. Any way they are assests to our security agencies, so they would continue to flourish but in the end would not only damage the shia but the whole country as we are seeing in the recent attacks on military installations. Chief Justice Sahib, you had great responsibility to free the country from the terrorists but you choose to appease them,Recommend
look at him and his followers in this picture, a man who has long list of crimes is simply smiling at the face of all Pakistanies
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@zeeshan sheikh:
So you mean to say Pakistan is made for only your ideology and your school of thought.Whats the difference between you and hindu extremists who killed muslims in India in the name of religion.Shame on you.
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He is the bigest enemy of Islam and Pakistan. Hang him till death and crackdown on LEJ. Gotta clean the house and kill all the cockroaches!!!
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Shame on our judicial system that such ugly killer roaming freely….
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@zir: I agree
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@Lord
There is no such thing is ‘My school of thought’ . God has set only one set of rules for all mankind. and Pakistan is for that ideology and no other ideology and that is written in our constitution.
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@zeeshan sheikh:
People like you are big shame for Islam. How shamelessly you are saying that there is only one ideology. What if UK start saying there is only one ideology you have to follow and that is church of England, what if Iran start forcing that there is only one ideology you have to follow, what if India start saying there is one ideology you have to force and that all people in india should live like Hindus. Go and search and you will find that how Prophet (PBUH) accommodated all kind of community. Islam guides us for open society where everybody could follow their beliefs.
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@Zeeshan Sheikh:
Mr. Zeeshan, its this diseased and terminally ill mindset, that u so shamelessly put on display, that has brought this unfortunate Land of Impure, to this brink of utter disaster and fatal chaos.
With preachers of hate like ur dishonorable self, roaming freely in the lawless jungle of Pakistan, we surely dont need any external assistance in the department of enemies.
The day anyone from your family is taken down from a bus , identified on the basis of name and sect, and then slaughtered like a sacrificial lamb, that wd b the day Mr. Sheikh, wen it wd hit u, how it feels to be at the receiving end of this madness?
Long Live Pakistan, the country where minorities r at the mercy of the majority and utterly on their own, with a lesser price placed on their dignity and honor, not to mention…. life.
Shame on all of us for this criminal and barbaric silence!
Hasan AbidiRecommend
Sayings of Imam Ali (A.S.) “Oppression and tyranny are the worse companions for the Hereafter”
We must fight to end this all by our writings to stop this tyranny and oppression of others
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Pakistan was not made for the very recent sect from Saudi Arabia. It’s founder was a westernized Shia and it’s creation was backed by men like the Agha Khan. And in my opinion opinion if you are not following the Quran and the teachings of the Imams from the Ahl-e-Bayt of Muhammad (saws) then you are a muslim but lost.Recommend
Tree of Abu Sufyan bears a most grotesque fruit
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This one guy worths more than all shias in Pakistan …Recommend
@zeeshan sheikh
Pakistan was not made for the very recent sect from Saudi Arabia. It’s founder was a westernized Shia and it’s creation was backed by men like the Agha Khan. And in my opinion opinion if you are not following the Quran and the teachings of the Imams from the Ahl-e-Bayt of Muhammad (saws) then you are a muslim but lost.
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@zeeshan sheikh:
You have right to your opinion, just beware that your support my put you with him in the day of judgement as well. It is afterall your choice
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@Pakistani Hindu:
Not just hateful speeches he openly claims killing by himself.
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He is enemy of Pakistan like osama bin laden for US and Qasab for India;the difference is that no body can dare to support Osama in US and Qasab in India but in Pakistan, he regularly appears in public gatherings to infect other people with his hate and people can take out processions against his arrest.His departure to S.Arabia is another manifestation of Pakistani state’s paralysis.He should be treated the same way as Osama and Qasab have been treated.
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We should not hate him. He is only a player and a soldier of a more powerful ideology. Religions and sects are for individuals. Can’t be applied on people forcefully. Today all the non-muslim communities outside Pakistan know that this ideology will not spare the rest of the world if get stronger in the future. Both sects Sunnies and Shias are responsible for today’s condition. Both are used by Saudi Arabia and Iran. All the Shias of Saudi Arabia are intact same as Sunnies of Iran! Why it is Pakistan to be the play ground of Sunni-Shia conflict? I believe it doesn’t worth dying for religion!
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@Mosquito Killer
Do you consider Pakistani Shias to be worthless creatures which must be eliminated from Pakistan?
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@zeeshan sheikh:
I wish that one day you or your family may face people like these wearing explosive belt and then in that very last moment you will understand what all other are trying to tell you. I pray from God that you be saved from that day. Ameen.
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@Critics:
I don’t think you are correct about Iran. My research says that Iran supports muslims regardless of their sect, Palestine is the case in point. In Pakistan as well Iran leaning people never incite violence, I know many of them they are all intellectuals. I came accross many of of the khomeini’s speeches and writings and he always talks about muslim unity. Saudi Arabia unfortunately is a different story all these terror factory madressas are unfortunately funded by them…
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Very bold article. Hats off to Tribune! All of our impotent leaders may learn a lesson from this article. Thank you!
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Hates off to ET for writing true n bold article… The title is also worthly chosen… we need to clear our country from these self declared states… Almighty Allah protect Pakistan…
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Malik Ishaq of the LeJ is accused of carrying out hundreds of murders but was not convicted because of lacunas in the legal system and the police’s inability to collect evidence or run a sound witness protection programme. Resultantly, he is being kept in jail under the Maintenance of Public Order act; there is no other substantive case against him. Let us also not forget that there are many in the lower judiciary who are sympathetic towards the jihadi mindset. Not surprisingly, Malik Ishaq was apparently allowed to cross-examine prosecution witnesses inside jail even in cases not related to him. The police official who tried to stop this practice was later murdered. Shahbaz Sharif is responsible for agreeing to keep silent on the jihadi ‘assets’. According to one source in the government, there was an understanding that he would take care of these elements, especially while the military was busy in the tribal areas. Therefore, the Punjab chief minister and his loyal law minister, Rana Sanaullah, deflected attention away from Punjab. There were even occasions when senior police officers covered up the jihadis’ tracks and maligned those that warned about such threats.
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@zeeshan sheikh:
“God has set only one set of rules for all mankind. and Pakistan is for that ideology and no other ideology and that is written in our constitution.”
Your are an ill-informed person religiously and as a Pakistani.Which constitution are talking about.According to 1973 constitution Shias are as muslims as you are. Your Pakistan was made a by shia for whom you think are non-believers.You represent an Intolerant,extremist and Hypocratic face of our society. Your one set of rules claim can be made by others but you think that your are right because you follow that set of rules. May Allah save us from your and your mindset. AmeenRecommend
@zeeshan sheikh
What exactly do you mean when you say you support him? Do you support a Shia genocide/expulsion/conversion (whichever is the easiest) like Ishaq? Or do you only support public hate speeches against Shia people?
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The party and the ministers are backing him should be mentioned in the article.
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@Huma:why
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