Entry of 21 clerics banned in Abbottabad

Administration bars people from outside the district staying near Muharram processions’ routes

ABBOTABAD:

Entry of at least 21 firebrand ulema and zakirin has been banned in the limits of Abbottabad district to maintain sectarian harmony during the mourning month of Muharram.

The district administration of Abbottabad through a notification issued on Friday barred 21 religious scholars and speakers of different schools of thought from entering the district till the end of Muharram.

The notification said that the decision to keep these speakers out was to maintain religious harmony in Abbottabad district.

These speakers, according to the notification, “can provoke people and incite religious disharmony by their speeches and also create law and order situation in the district.”

The authorities have also slapped a ban on people from outside the district from staying in the hotels near the places of Muharram procession routes or Muharram majalis.

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Moreover, stating further steps to improve security, the document said that Afghan refugees were not allowed to enter the city limits after 7pm besides pillion riding and display of arms was banned too.

The district administration has made it mandatory for the organisers of the mourning processions to follow the decided routes and the timetable. Change of route, time and addition of any new matam procession has been disallowed by the district administration.

It is further elaborated that inciting religious disharmony, exhibition of weapons, wall chalking, distribution and sale of CDs, pamphlets, booklets are also banned. Violators of the ban would be dealt under Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) section 185.

The banned religious scholars and speakers include ASWJ leader Muawia Azam Tariq of Jhang, he is son of late Sipah Sahaba leader Maulana Azam Tariq; Maulana Abdul Aziz of Lal Masjid Islamabad, Maulana Muhammad Ahmed Ludhyanwi, Allama Raja Nasir Abbass, Rawalpindi; Chan Pir Shah Tofkian, Hairpur; Maulana Asif Jalali, Allama Manzoor Hussain, Maulana Masoodur Rehman Usmani, Maulana Khadim Hussain Dhaloon, Allama Kafayat Hussain Naqvi of MuzaffarAbad, Maulana Alim Tariq of Jhang, Maulana Sarwar Nawaz Jhangwi, Maulana Atta Muhammad Deshani of Battagram, Maulana Shabbir Ahmed Usmani of Taxila, Islamuddin Usmani, Imran Gul, Maulana Ilyas Ghumman, Sargodha Zulfiqar Shah, Haripur; Ameen Shaheedi and Maulana Aurangzeb Farooqi from Karachi.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 22^nd, 2020.