Leaders and activists of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamat chant slogans against sectarian clashes in Rawalpindi on Ashura procession. PHOTO: PPI
The protests by Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) in Karachi were against the Rawalpindi incident as well as what they termed “extra-judicial killings of their workers in fake police encounters.” The rallies, which drew several thousand charged-up activists, were also later joined by the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam factions of Maulana Fazalur Rehman and Maulana Samiul Haq at the Quaidabad Chowrangi and Lasbela.
While addressing a rally at Lasbela, the ASWJ central spokesperson, Allama Aurangzeb Farooqui, appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take notice of the Rawalpindi incident, in which he said 16 activists of the ASWJ were also attacked.
The leader criticised the Rawalpindi administration for their laxity in ensuring the security measures and allowing the mob to roam around and ignite sectarian violence.
The ASWJ rally in Hyderabad, led by their district Ameer Syed Asif Ali Shah, walked for over a kilometre to the press club amid tight security by the Rangers and police. The protesters demanded justice for victims of the Rawalpindi incident and punishment for the culprits.
Rally by JUI-F
Hundreds of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam’s (JUI-Fazl) workers held a rally at Minara Road in Sukkur in protest of the violence. The JUI workers, led by the JUI’s Sindh secretary-general, Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro, started the rally from the Madrassa Hamadia Manzil Gah Sukkur. Shouting slogans against the killing of innocent people and the Punjab government, the workers gathered at Minara Road where they staged protest demonstration.
In his address, Soomro strongly condemned the tragic incident in Rawalpindi on Ashura and held the Punjab government responsible for the attack on students of a seminary. “If the provincial government had taken foolproof security measures, the clash could have been prevented,” said Soomro. “Armed terrorists took advantage of the lapse in security and attacked innocent people.” He criticised the attitude of Punjab government, civil society and media for their reluctance to condemn this act of terrorism, demanding that the interior minister and Punjab chief minister accept their failure and step down. He warned that if the government fails to arrest and punish the culprits, they would block the National Highway in Sindh.
Extrajudicial killings
Allama Aurangzeb Farooqui also accused Crime Inves-tigation Department’s SSP Chaudhry Muhammad Aslam Khan of extrajudicial killings. “This is not the first time that innocent workers of the ASWJ were abducted by the CID police from their residences and later killed in fake encounters,” he said, referring to the Mauripur encounter late Wednesday night in which at least six alleged activists of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), a banned outfit, were claimed to be killed by SSP Aslam. While Allama Farooqui refuted the allegation of ASWJ activists’ association with the LeJ, SSP Aslam claimed that the alleged terrorists were going to attack the Hussainia Irania Imambargah in Kharadar. The police official also claimed that the mastermind of the attack on Justice Maqbool Baqar was also among the terrorists killed in the encounter.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 18th, 2013.
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If everyone became a TRUE Muslim we will not have this problem, only IMAAN can solve this problem. We dont need the government or the police or the Judiciary for that matter... Imaan is the need of the day...