Funeral for ASWJ leader: Mourners stage rally on The Mall

Speakers at protest say Shias should not be allowed to take processions on roads.

LAHORE:

Activists of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamat (ASWJ) staged a rally on The Mall on Saturday to demand the arrest and prosecution of those responsible for the murder of ASWJ Punjab President Shamsur Rehman Muawiya.

The protesters streamed out of Masjid-i-Shuhada after Zuhr prayers and, placing Muawiya’s body on the road at Regal Chowk, began an eight-hour rally. Some 4,000 people joined the protest, an SP at the scene estimated.

Funeral prayers for Muawiya, who was gunned down in his car on Ravi Road as he returned from Friday prayers, were offered on the road after Isha prayers. Khalifa Abdul Qayyum led the prayers. The protest remained relatively peaceful.



The Mall was closed from Regal Chowk to Charring Cross, and several link roads including Queen’s Road, Hall Road and Temple Road were also shut. Security SP Ali Salman Khan said that 1,500-2,000 policemen had been deployed for security purposes.

Addressing the rally, ASWJ leaders demanded the arrest of Muawiya’s killers, failing which they would stage more protests. They criticised the Punjab government, saying it had failed to protect religious leaders. They demanded that Shia mourning processions be limited to within imam bargahs, and accused the Majlis-i-Wahdat-al Muslimeen of turning Pakistan into Syria.

The protest was called by ASJW leaders Maulana Hussain Ahmad and Maulana Jameel Muawiya and supported by the International Khatm-i-Nabuwwat Movement, the Jamatud Dawa, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Ahle Sunnat Deoband and the Jamiat-i-Talaba-i-Arabia. Several Sipah-i-Sahaba flags were also seen on the stage at the rally.



A Security Branch official told The Express Tribune that the administration had approved the timing and venue of the protest and that the ASWJ leadership had agreed to disperse after the funeral prayers, after Zuhr prayers. However, the protesters refused to leave until parliamentarians gave them assurances about security and arrests.

Operations DIG Rana Abdul Jabbar first tried negotiating with the ASWJ leadership to get the protesters to leave, but they did not budge. A divisional SP said that ISI officials had then tried to get the protesters to leave, but they failed too.

The protestors finally dispersed after a meeting between MNAs and MPAs Khwaja Salman Rafique, Afzal Khokhar, Bilal Yaseen and Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman, and ASWJ leaders Aurangzeb Farouqi, Masoodur Rehman Usmani, Ghulam Mustafa Baloch and Tahir Ashraf. DCO Qazi Javed, Commissioner Rashid Mehmood Langrial, the operations DIG, and Capital City Police Officer Chaudhry Shafiq Gujjar also attended the meeting.

Khawaja Salman Rafique, later addressing the protestors, assured them that Muawiya’s murderers would be arrested and brought to book soon. He said that the Punjab government would improve security arrangements for the ASWJ leadership.

It was also decided at the meeting that an ASWJ delegation would meet the chief minister on December 11 to express their reservations about security.

ASWJ Punjab Caretaker President Tahir Ashraf said that Muawiya would be laid to rest at Mian Mir graveyard.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 8^th, 2013.