Government inaction
A part-real, part-imagined chronology of what Lal Masjid brand of Shariah entails for the country

By Arif Jamal

January 21, 2007

Scores of completely veiled girl students from Jamia Hafsa, armed with batons and bamboos, break the locks of the only public library for children in Islamabad, which is adjacent to the Lal Masjid, and occupy it. They are protesting the demolition of illegally constructed mosques on stolen land. They say they are raising their voice because the local residents had failed to do that.

The Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Fareedia are affiliated with the Lal Masjid. The Capital Development Authority, reportedly under the instructions from federal intelligence agencies, had demolished illegally constructed mosques including Amir Hamza mosque on the Murree Road to improve the security of the VIP motorcades frequently commuting on that highway. They justified their action with an old ruling of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) that such mosques and madrasas are unIslamic.

January 26, 2007

The event attracts little attention from the national press and no action from the government till January 26, 2007 when, during his Friday sermon, Khateeb of the Lal Masjid Maulana Abdul Aziz asks the government to reconstruct all the seven illegally constructed mosques or face suicide attacks. Minutes after his threat, a security guard at a local five star hotel died in a suicide attack. Intelligence agencies reportedly suspect al-Furqan, a breakaway group of Jaish-i-Mohammad, of being behind the suicide bombing. Al-Furqan is led by Commander Abdul Jabbar, once number two to Jaish-i-Mohammad founding amir Maulana Masood Azhar, who was closely linked with the Lal Masjid clerics. He was arrested by intelligence agencies for his involvement in the suicide attacks on General Musharraf in 2003. Abdul Jabbar had recently been released from the custody of an unknown intelligence agency.

January 27, 2007

The male students from Jamia Fareedia, who had joined their veiled female colleague, have been turning the Lal Masjid into a fortress without anybody noticing it from the very first day of the crisis. Now, they start going out in the markets and threaten video shops to close their immoral business. There is a sense of insecurity all over the city. The Lal Masjid moral brigade includes many baffled outsiders.

February 6, 2007

Islamabad has reportedly been receiving unprecedented threats of suicide attacks from previously unknown groups for several weeks now. Intelligence agencies are working to foil many terrorist attacks in Islamabad. Another suicide attack takes place at the Islamabad airport.

February 9, 2007

Seminary students from outside Islamabad, particularly from the tribal areas, have been joining their co-believers in the Lal Masjid without any hindrance since the start of the crisis. The government appears to have decided to take actions against the illegal acts of the Lal Masjid clerics and their followers. Police force is deployed around the mosque. The two clerics vow to resist any action. Rawalpindi and Islamabad are under siege both by law-enforcement agencies and seminary students for all practical purposes.

February 11, 2007

Four leading jihadist ulema, namely Maulana Saleemullah Khan, Maulana Sher Ali, Maulana Taqi Usmani, and Maulana Abdur Razzaq Iskandar, with tacit government blessing, come to negotiate with Lal Masjid administration and resolve the crisis. They hold negotiations with the two clerics and support their point of view in the meeting but express their helplessness in public.

February 12, 2007

The government finally bows down before the ulema and promises to reconstruct the demolished mosques. Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Ijazul Haq inaugurates the reconstruction of Ameer Hamza Mosque. A five-member and an 11-member committee are formed to resolve the issue permanently. It appears the issue will be resolved soon. However, that does not happen. The situation continues to worsen and the moral brigade of the Lal Masjid continues to spread its tentacles.

March 28, 2007

The moral brigade of the Lal Masjid breaks into a private house and kidnaps three women and a six-month old baby. They accuse the women (and the baby) of running a brothel. She is released after she accepts to abandon her profession under threat to her life. Later, she denies the charge. Many believe she was punished for being a Shia. The government turns a blind eye to the activities of the Lal Masjid moral brigade, their illegal acts go unchecked.

May 18, 2007

Under the direction of the two clerics, the students from Jamia Fareedia kidnap four policemen who were on duty. The Lal Masjid asks the government to release all the 11 students who had been arrested for burning a video-shop in the capital and other illegal acts. Police registers an FIR but is stopped from taking action to get the kidnapped policemen freed from illegal confinement.

May 19, 2007

Under an agreement with the government, the Lal Masjid released two abducted policemen against the release of four arrested students. They said they would release the other two policemen only after the release of the remaining seven arrested students. The government denies to have any one of them in custody.

May 20, 2007

Nearly 13,000 police and Rangers gather in Islamabad to carry out an operation to get the abducted policemen released from illegal confinement at the Lal Masjid. At midnight, the government once again bows down for unexplained reasons.

December 2007

Encouraged by the happenings in Islamabad, the students of the Darul Uloom in Gujranwala demand the imposition of shariat in the country. In the meanwhile, following in the footsteps of the students of the Lal Masjid, they announce to impose their own shariat in the neighbourhood. The moral brigade of the Darul Uloom in Gujranwala roams around the city, shutting down the video-shops and throwing acid on the faces of unveiled women. The pace of Talibanisation in Gujranwala is faster than in Islamabad, given its more conservative population.

December 2008

In the year 2008, more Darul Ulooms in Punjab announce to impose shariat in their neighbourhoods. They all start by shutting down video-shops and throwing acid on the faces of unveiled women.

January 2009

The local warlords try to snatch territory from the neighbouring warlords in efforts to increase their area of influence. The bigger warlords chase their weaker rivals and increase their influence.

March 2009

All the Islamist and jihadist forces are unleashed after having shown patience at the local successes of their rivals. The big militias try to overrun the small warlords. The clever ones join the bigger militias while the smaller ones are eliminated from the scene. Then, the bigger militias wage jihad against their sectarian rivals, who were once grouped in the MMA.

December 2009

The process of Afghanistanisation is complete by the end of the year 2009. Local clerics-turned-local warlords are controlling their neighbourhoods, in some cases, small towns, and, in a few cases, cities. The liberal and democratic people have died or left the country. One rarely sees women in public life or in the streets.

The brief chronology of events from January to May 2007 is real while from May 2007 to December 2009 is imagined. If the situation continues as it is, the reality may not be very different provided the regional or international situation remains the same. The reality may be worse if the other regional actors such as India and Afghanistan decide, individually or collectively, to take action against the growing jihadist threat. The situation may improve only if the jihad factory is shut down for good. That is unlikely to happen in the given circumstances.

All hopes of the situation getting better vanished after the federal government decided not to take action to get the two kidnapped policemen freed. The two clerics and their militia are still holding the two policemen at the time of writing this article. With each passing day, the Lal Masjid episode adds to unanswered questions. The latest unanswered question is why did the government refuse to take action after gathering 13,000 police and Rangers?

We will never get the official answer. However, the Musharraf regime stands exposed for encouraging the rise of the fundamentalists in the country. The government had been explaining away the rise of the Pakistani Taliban in the tribal areas and the NWFP by giving different excuses. However, the Musharraf regime has to blame itself for the rise of fundamentalism in the national capital, and the rest of the country.

__________________
Time is like a river.
You cannot touch the same water twice,
because the flow that has passed will never pass again.
Enjoy every moment of life.

I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.