ISLAMABAD: Former Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami late Qazi Hussain Ahmed had rejected issuing a statement like Syed Munawar Hasan when the former was approached by al-Qaeda to declare Pakistan Army’s action against militants un-Islamic, also urging for a call prohibiting burial of the martyred soldiers in Muslim graveyards. In contrast, al-Qaeda succeeded to convince Lal Masjid clerics who subsequently issued a decree in this respect in 2004 which demanded the clerics not to lead funeral prayer of the soldiers. The decree created a division within the army as scores of soldiers and officers were court martialled after they refused to participate in operation against militants and the parents of those martyred in the operation refused to receive the dead bodies in light of this religious ruling. “All the combined guns of the militants could not have been as useful in belittling the Pakistan Army as that religious decree,” wrote slain journalist Saleem Shehzad in his book: Inside Al-Qaeda and Taliban. When Sheikh Essa, a prominent al-Qaeda leader, persuaded Qazi Hussain Ahmed in 2004 to declare army actions against militants as un-Islamic, he replied that “your theories in the present circumstance would only benefit enemies like India and America,” according to Saleem Shehzad. Likewise, Qazi Hussain Ahmed also slapped a ban on literature that was being circulated outside JI’s headquarters in Mansoora (Lahore) after Friday prayers in a clear sign to disassociate his party from becoming part of any such move against the army. Al-Qaeda’s message was however well received by JI activists in Karachi as two Akmal brothers also joined their rank and were later killed in tribal areas. Dr. Afia Siddiqui who was picked up by the US is also from Karachi. How much the message resonated with Syed Munawar Hassan is not known but the fact remains that he also belongs to Karachi, according to a counter-terrorism expert. As for Essa’s bid to secure support of religious leaders, he travelled to Lahore and Islamabad in 2004 for meeting Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Maulana Fazlu Rehman, Hafiz Saeed Ahmed, Dr. Israr Ahmed and Maulana Abdul Aziz. He brought along copies of his books to circulate and stimulate their thoughts to support al-Qaeda by standing against the army actions considering it their Islamic duty. “However, the people who responded most significantly to al-Qaeda’s call in both letter and spirit were two brothers, Maulana Abdul Aziz and Abdul Rasheed Ghazi, the prayer leaders of Islamabad’s Lal Masjid,” according to Saleem Shehzad’s book. Sheikh Essa managed to convince Maulana Abdul Aziz that Pakistan Army is not a Muslim army, telling him that if he refused the “call of takfeer on the Pakistan Army, God will never forgive you.” On the advice of al-Qaeda, Maulana Abdul Aziz issued a religious decree in 2004 which declared the South Waziristan operation as un-Islamic. The decree prohibited the burial of the soldiers in Muslim graveyards. Funeral prayers for those who had died in the action against the Muslim militants in South Waziristan were forbidden. The decree was circulated throughout the country and 500 clerics signed it. Matters did not end there, he continued. As a result of the religious decree, several cases were reported by the media of parents refusing to receive the dead bodies of their sons who had been killed fighting on the side of the armed forces. Religious clerics refused to say prayers over their bodies. The result was the demoralization of the rank and file of the Pakistan’s armed forces. Dozens of lower-ranking non-commissioned officers defied the commands of their officers to fight and were court-martialed. Almost an equal number of officers resigned from service on receiving orders of their postings to South Waziristan. “The Pakistan Army had been well placed to defeat the militants in 2004, but al-Qaeda’s timely spin by using Lal Masjid had clipped its wings,”
Posted on: Sun, 01 Dec 2013 16:48:05 +0000
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