Pakistani nation made hostage on the name of religious processions – Procession Terrorism
By: International Professor
Last week ten days of Muharram were most difficult time for the peoples of Pakistan. Human rights of majority were badly violated by security agencies. Peoples were locked behind doors, nobody was allowed to see outside from windows of their homes, markets were closed and even no one was allowed to carry sick to hospitals, pregnant were also not allowed to keep foot outside door.
Mobs of religious fanatics were on streets shouting sectarian slogans and it was common to spread venom of hate under protection of Army and Police. Hyper topless men were thrown in residential and commercial areas of almost all towns. Army took control of 37 towns and above 100,000 security men were used to promote sectarianism. According to history each year in the same period of time sectarian violence takes lives of dozens of peoples.
By passing time hate is growing as security agencies are trying to suffocate peoples in their homes. Hundreds are arrested on fake accusations. Now Muharram processions have no more religious significance, instead it is source of dividing nation and a medium of developing permanent rift and sectarian hate.
The 5% population is enjoying rights to abuse notables and sacred of other sect under shelter of Army and Police. It is clearly human rights violation of 160 million Pakistani’s. Moreover it is worst form of persecution and religious terrorism.
Mischievous strangers are pushed to majority living areas of population and hyper fanatics, extremists and fundamentalists shout heart burning slogans in front of homes and religious centers of opposite sects.
This ritual of chest beating or chain beating on the occasion of 1400 years old dead is a non-Islamic illustration, even though we have no objection to their customs, we are also strong supporter of fundamental religious liberty of every citizen. But it is clear terrorism to confine majority sect to the homes, whereas all security and protection is provided to procession and no security to families living under siege and fear from hyper religious extremists singing war songs, by the way against whom? The hypothetical, supposed and accused enemies of at least 1400 year old war. Is it not funny? It is insane.
We have nothing to do with religious beliefs of any one, everyone has the right to worship his own God. Unfortunately whole drama is shown as an Islamic event, whereas Islam does not permit any kind of religious processions, worship of dead persons, slogans based on hatred, confinement of other sects, abusing sacred personalities of other sects, worship of horse, worship of fake coffin and there are hundred thousand rituals that have been named as Islam.
For example whole storey is fictitious and that was written 350 years after incidence, names of dead are controversial, all personalities abused are sons of very sacred companions and close relatives of Holy Prophet. Such as:
Ibn Saad is son of Hazrat Saad Ibn Waqas RA who conquered Iran.
Shimmer Ziljoshan is uncle of Hazrat Husain RA. So on
Following abused was not at the spot when tragedy happened:
The 6th Caliph Yazid and son of the 5th Caliph Muawia RA of Islam were close relative of Holy Prophet. There is a list of relations between two families.
Obaid ullah ibn Ziad, Governor e Kufa.
Processions shout against Yazid bin Muawia RA, let us see his status in Islam. First of all he is 6th Caliph of Islam and Commander in Chief of Muslim Armed forces. Moreover second most sacred book after Quran, the Bukhari has granted him forgiveness or beneficence according to narrations of Holy Prophet and 3rd most sacred book Muslim support those narrations.
1. The narration about Hazrat Umm Haram (RA), Holy Prophet when visited her house, he told her about Jihad via sea and attack on Constantine. She (RA) followed narration of Holy Prophet and joined sea Battle under Hazrat Amir Muawia ibn Abu Safian (RA) and died enroot, her grave is still famous somewhere in that area. (Refer: Sahih Bokhari, Kitab ul Jihad, Bab ul Dua Biljihad from Ans (RA), Umm e Haram (RA). And Sahih Muslim: Kitab ul Amarat bab fazal al Ghazwah fe Albahar.
2. Second Jihad held when Hazrat Yazid ibn Muawia (RA) was commander in chief of Islamic forces and assaulted Constantine; the witness of narration is grave of Hazrat Abu Ayub Ansari (RA) in Turkey, the host of Holy Prophet at Madina Munawwara after Hijra. (Refer Sahih Bukhari , Kitab ul Salat Al Nawafil by Mahmood bin Rabee (RA)
Muslims have no forum to challenge any narration of Sahih Bukhari and deny its existence, and those who have no knowledge of narrations or have Sufi sources of narrations even have no power to deny them. The status of low level Ulema has no authority to deny such narrations. However some peoples in recent past tried but failed because majority rejected their claims.
Islamic history takes pride of all expansions, conversions of non-Muslims to Islam, all agreements carried out by outside world. Why not return all possessions of Islamic forces of that period wipe out everything then talk to us what has been left behind. There are political differences between sacred personalities; those have nothing to do with fundamentals of Islam. I can point out historical facts and truth but that can hurt some peoples.
Above is an example and I having true history to tell peoples that there was no custom of processions, this mass ritual was manufactured a few decades back. When whole story was written after 350 years and there was no Twitter to inform everyone, neither books were published in millions like today in USA.
Most Important event is burial of Hazrat Ali (RA), for early 550 years there was no grave of Hazrat Ali. The current grave at Najaf said to be dream of someone while in fact Hazrat Ali embraced martyrdom at Jamia Masjid, Kufa. So all Sufi’s who preach graves worship today is telling lies. 4th Caliph of Islam never wanted or their true family never thought of building mausoleums. All mausoleums have history of a few hundred years. Don’t compare them burial of Holy Prophet and that had to be saved from enemies of Islam. The mausoleums that have been built are built and now destroying them is also worst kind of terrorism and that can hurt sentiment of followers.
When these current procession fanatics had no knowledge of even grave of Hazrat Ali (RA) for centuries then how those might have true events and stories of the Muharram tragic incidence.
Believe me everything is available in old history books and anyone who dare to tell truth is assassinated and history is witness that how history has been wrapped and twisted.
I have no intention to hurt anyone and the above narrations are widely known to all Ulema, but MMA and Milli Yekjehti Council type political vested interests stop Ulema to say truth. In support of British Raj some Moulvies even denied Quranic verses of Jihad, Allama Iqbal taunted them in the form of poetry that since you have denied Jihad, now your next target would be Hajj. Contemporarily the Tahir Qadri type low grade Mullah had denied Jihad verses and wrote a book funded by British Institution. In fact he has copied and affirmed the sayings of Ahmadi Prophet, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian.
My point is simple that I have no objection what thoughts Shia and Quasi Shia might have; neither am I any kind of religious scholar, not even any kind of religious preacher. But I feel that religious processions must be limited to majority areas of respective sects, whether those are Muslim or non-Muslim processions. No procession must be public Limited and arranged on the expenses of state. It is observed that outsiders have been pushed to local residential or commercial areas to spread hate.
Let the processions abuse companion of Holy Prophet in their majority areas, abuse wives of Holy prophet, deny real sons and daughters of Holy prophet, but all such religious extremism must be limited to their place of worship and if processions are very essential kind of worship then limit them to areas where those have at least 75% population. In some countries they happily turn out procession on empty streets in the night and local public is not endangered by religious hyper extremists.
We strongly condemn Govt. of Pakistan’s fascist’s behavior to use Army and Armed Helicopters to harass, confine and imprison seniors, women and children to their homes, by force close businesses, deprive peoples riding bikes, ban on Cellular, wireless and other communication or commuter services. Use media to propagate religious extremism and hatred.
It is quiet wrong that majority population has same beliefs, In whole word the Shia population of combined one Dozen of Shia sects is not more than 10%. And such peoples are hindrance in census on religious sects or counting heads. Entire civilized world keep records of all type of statistics, including sectarian, ethnic survey.
In case counting heads is religious fundamentalism than what you say about religious processions in the majority areas, is not terrorism? When a Govt. would support hate than lamentation on sectarian killings did not have any worth. I ask all fanatic and self righteous zealots that those poor peoples who are killed in sectarian terrorism, whether any Black, Green or White turban clergy ever take care of those families that were suffering. Answer is no, poor faithful are willy-nilly of superstitious rituals and customs.
The peoples talking about sectarian harmony are making fool to public; there was never ever peace during and after any procession, if anyone did not have knowledge then explore history of subcontinent. Remember up till Sultan Mahmood Ghaznavi era only Ismailia’s were called Shia and they never carried out procession with the intention of hurt public sentiments. Only Iranian funded a few small states were converted to Iranian Shia’t in Mughal era but Sultan Aurangzeb Alamgir re converted them back in Islamic faith like Adil Shahia or Bijapur etc. See writings of Mujadad Alif Thani, Shah Waliullah, and Amir Abdul Rahman even banned and shunt them out from Afghanistan. Read who had been conducting the “Tabbara Processions” mean Sahaba bashing conventions, read history that who had been dispatching train load of hate lovers to Lucnow from Jhang and Para Chinar areas.
I have thousands of references and all are available in books published in Indo-Pakistan. We cannot eliminate hate at all; but we can reduce special effects of venom. And that is limiting hate mongers, religious fanatics and extremists to their homes by not allowing processions in majority sect’s area.
Have you ever measured economical impact and financial losses to nation with ten days and later 3rd day, 4th day, 10th day or 40th day? It is unending cycle and source of unlimited sectarian hate. The loss is in billions, as reported 100,000 army, police and Govt. officials and their transportation etc costs poor country millions per hour.
Bound- Limit fanatics and “procession terrorists” to their localities and that are the only way to bounce terrorism back to minimal level.
Measure Shia Population in Pakistan:
Sub-continent’s Shia population census conducted by British Masters is included in my previous column, available at:
http://www.makepakistanbetter.com/Why_how_what_forum.asp?PageNo=&GroupID=1&ArticleID=19166
I have complete historical records of District wise census based on sectarian and ethnicity conducted by British Sarkar, you can calculate rough idea of current increase in population on the basis of figures of respective sect.
Sarhad Province: Current KPK: 1901 Census: Total Population: 2125480. Muslim Population: 1957777, Shia Population: 19577 or 1% of Muslim Population. Breakup is as under:
District Peshawar: 1891 Census: Including Tehsil Charsadda, Mardan, Sawabi, Peshawar and Nowshera. Total District population: 711795, Muslim: 662400, Shia: 3577 or 0.54% of Muslims population
District Bannu: 1881 Census: Including Tehsil Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Eisa Khel, Mianwali. Total Population of District: 332577, Muslim: 301002, Shia: 2895 or 0.95 % of Muslim Population.
District Dera Ismail Khan: 1881 Census: Including DIKhan, Kulachi, Bhakkar, Liyyah and Tanak. Total Population of District: 441649, Muslim: 385224, Shia: 11287 or 2.93% of Muslim Population.
District Kohat: 1881 Census: Including Tehsil Kohat, Hungo and Terah. Total District Population: 181540, Muslim: 169219, Shia: 10591 or 6.3% of Muslim Population. (Kohat: 6829, Hangu: 3749, Tirah: 13 Shia’s only).
District Hazara: 1881 Census: Including Tehsil Abbotabad, Haripur, Mansehra and Tanawal. Total District Population: 385759, Muslim: 385759, 100% population was reported Sunni.
Punjab:
District Lahore: 1881 Census: Including Tehsil Lahore, Chonian, Qasoor and Sharaqpur. Total District Population: 924106, Muslim: 599477, Shia: 2997 or 0.5% of Muslim Population.
District Attock: 1891 Census: Including Tehsil Attock, Pindi Gheb, Fateh Jang and Talla Gang. Total District Population: 448420, Muslim: 90% plus, A few Shia households were reported and can be counted on finger tips.
District Rawalpindi: 1881 Census: Including Tehsil Rawalpindi: 211275, Kahuta: 87210, Murree: 39198 and Gujar Khan: 133396. In whole area only a few Ghakkars Mochi’s were reported Shia.
District Montgomery: 1881 Census: Including Tehsil Montgomery, Gogera, Dibalpur and Pakpattan. Total District Population: 426529, Muslim: 330495, Shia: 1953 only.
District DG Khan: 1891 Census: Including Tehsil Sanghar: 53161, Jampur: 83583, Rajanpur: 90225. Total Population: 404031, Muslim: 349587, Shia: 6642 or 1.1 % of Muslim Population.
District Muzaffar Girh: 1929 Census: Including Tehsil Muzaffar Girh: 178579, Tehsill Alipur: 146711, Tehsil Kot Addu: 108970 and Tehsil Liyyah: 134218. District’s Muslims Population: 493369 or 86%, only a few were reported Shia’s.
District Mianwali: 1911 Census: Tehsil Mianwali, Bhakkar and Eisakhel. Total District: 341377, Muslim: 300002, Some Qizlibash in Bhakkar claimed Shia, some Syeds are hypocrite who did not report their religion (Page 71, 1915 Gazetteer of Mianwali)
District Gujrat: 1911 Census: Total Population: 745634, Muslim: 648702, Shia: 6424, Ahmadi: 1863.
District Sialkot: 1911 Census: Including Tehsil Sialkot, Pasroor, Zafarwal, Raya and Daska. Total Population: 979553, Muslim: 604801, Shia: 11500.
District Jhang: 1881 Census: Total Population: 395296, Muslim: 326910, Shia: 11835
Sindh Province: 1901 Census: Total Population: 3210910, Muslim: 2446489, Total Shia population was in between 50, 000 -55,000 (Total Shia population in Sindh and Bombay province vide 1921 Census: 144427), {Including Bohra and Ismailia: 5000 persons , Talpur and Kalhora: 40% Shia’s, Mughal: 50% Shia’s}.
Baluchistan Province: All Districts Population according to 1901 Census:
Zhob, Loralai, Quetta-Pishin, Chaghi – West Sanjrani, Bolan, Sibi were under British Raj. While Qalat and Lasbela were states, Muree-Bugti areas etc.
District Quetta-Pishin: Total Population: 114087, Muslim: 96600, {All Muslims reported Sunni}. District Zhob: Total population: 69718, Muslim: 67772. {All reported Sunni}.
District Loralai: Total population: 67864, Muslim: 64560 {All reported Sunni}. District Sibi: Total population: 73893, Muslim: 66807 {All reported Sunni}.
Murree-Bugti area: Total Murree: 20391, Total Bugti: 18528. {All reported Sunni}.
District Bolan: Total: 1936. District Chaghi: Total: 15689. {All reported Sunni}. District Sarawan and Kichhi: Sarawan: 65549, Khichi: 82909. {All Sunni}.
District Jhalawan: Total: 223692. Here one sect Sajdis or Muhammad Hasni are Zikri, otherwise all population is Sunni.
Kharan: 1904 Census: Total: 19215, All Muslims and Sunni.
Lasbela: 1901 Census: Total: 56109, Muslim: 54001, only 385 reported Shia mostly Agha Khani and a few Zikris. No Taazia procession reported. Mostly Zikri live at Ormara Nibat.
Makran: 1903 Census. Total: 78585.{ Zikri also claim to be Sunni but their population is above 33%}, 281 Agha Khani Lotia ( Out of them at Gwadar: 250, Pasni: 26, Asai: 05 - Shia Agha Khani)
Jammu and Kashmir: 1901 Census: Total Population: 2905578
(Jammu Province total population: 1521307, Kashmir Province: 1157394, Ladakh: 165992, Gilgit: 60885). In Ladakh out of 463 villages only one village Chah Kot had Shia population, Baltatistan had Shia majority, Gilgit population was 60,885 and Astore had 67% Sunni, Gilgit had Shia majority, Hunza had Agha Khani majority. At Srinagar population was 122618; Shia’s were living at Zadi Bal Ward and Maraj (Bara Mula). According to Lawrance Walter’s book (1895) the Shia population of Kashmir in 1890 was 5% of total Muslim Population.
Karachi: Population in 1941: 387000 and after influx of Mohaj’s in 1951 it increased to 1068000.
From UP and Dehli only 197600 persons settled at Karachi.
{Total Mohajreen who settled in West Pakistan: 65 Lac (0.65 million)} Out of which 81 % settled in Punjab, 18 % in Sindh }.
{In 1981 another wave of refugees settled in Pakistan counted to 40 Lac (0.40 million) mostly from India and Bangladesh}.
Shia’s have pockets in following areas as visible minority:
In 1992 the total population of areas like {Kurram had 294362} and {Orakzai 358751}, while {FR Kohat had 57245} of total populations. {District Jhang: 1978263, District Bhakkar: 665884}. {District Chitral: 208560}, {FR DI Khan: 86007}, District Karachi West: 931479 and Karachi Central: 1357002 person. District Quetta had 381566.
At Quetta Shia Hazara Afghan refugees are trying to merge in local population, even some have enrolled in Pakistan Army and Air Force. Peoples migrating from Gilgit – Baltatistan or Para Chinar areas to Karachi have deep impact of decreased population of native areas. At Jhang and Bhakkar or in some Multan areas most feudal is Shia while pomp and show of Shia’s in such areas is not due to population but wealth. Iranian Pasdaran e Inqilab presence at Para Chinar was noticed and a Hizbollah style area is under development.
All above statistics are available in every Library; Shia minority must be limited to their majority areas, if anyone is sincere to stop sectarianism. Check and calculate their population and limit them to worship according to their faith.
Don’t jump on me just go to libraries and confirm statistics and pressurize Govt. for latest census on sectarian head counting’s. Expose myth of 60 million or 20% Shia population in Pakistan. Shia’s are not more than 5% in Pakistan.
|