Maulana Abdul Aziz, better known as ‘Maulana Burqa’ for escaping arrest in 2007, being disguised as a woman, does it again. Despite being banned by the government from entering the premises of Islamabad mosque, also known as ‘Lal Masjid‘ for the colour of its walls, and being considered by a wide majority little more than a terrorist, the Maulana does it again and of course wins because, instead of being jailed, he has been allotted by the public administration 20 kanals of public land to build a new Jamia Hafsa, the female madrasa adjacent to the mosque.
The dispute between the Islamabad Public Administration and
the Lal Masjid has been going on for a couple of years, but whoever thinks it
is only a land dispute would be totally wrong.
The mosque, and the madrasas linked to it, were managed until 2007 by two maulanas: Abdul Aziz and Abdul Rashid Ghazi. The two brothers were actually two former government officials, who were fired for illegally possessing firearms, being open supporters of the Taliban, of the Islamic strict observance law, and detractors of the then president Musharraf and his foreign policy.
At that time, they had kept the government in check for months, threatening to send their followers to commit suicide attacks across the country. Incidentally, the government-financed and still continues to finance the mosque with public money.
The female madrasa of Lal Masjid is called Jamia Hafsa and
was managed by Abdul Aziz’s wife. Its girls, about two thousand black maidens
dressed and armed with sticks and Kalashnikovs, had at the time kept the police
in check to prevent the demolition of an old city mosque, and had particularly
distinguished themselves in typically female activities such as trying to shut
down shops selling movies and music destroying CDs, tapes and VHS, beating men
and women who wore western clothes and even the unfortunate drivers, who
insisted on driving their cars in person.
In 2007, Musharraf commanded an anti-terrorism operation against the mosque, besieged for days by the Army. The operation costed the lives of an unknown number of people, marked one of the darkest pages of the former General’s presidency and is still considered one of the main reasons for his fall.
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Abdul Aziz, who escaped wearing a burqa and then arrested,
was released in 2009. Since then he is free, free to continue his ‘religious
activities’ in Islamabad and surrounding areas. Free to support and train
jihadi, propagate sectarian and racial hatred. An open supporter of IS, he is
the only one who has refused to publicly condemn the Peshawar massacre in which
130 children were killed.
This time, claiming that the present government is as bad as
the Musharraf’s one, he did it again. Using female students once more to occupy
the place. The Army besieged the location but apparently after Burqa obtained
to discuss the issue with prominent people in the public administration, the girls
started to leave while he ‘promised’ to leave by tomorrow.
A success for Islamabad authorities? Not really. Being in
fact blackmailed by terrorists and their supporters is a new normal in the
country. A few days before Maulana Aziz entered the Lal Masjid. In fact, the
former TTP spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan had escaped from the safe house where
the Army and ISI were keeping him with his wife and children.
From Turkey, where apparently he escaped, Ehsan released a
statement in which he talks of a deal struck with the Army and blames the
authorities because they did not keep their word: the promised money had not
arrived, so he simply left. Most probably with the connivance of the same
people who were supposed to guard him.
The past week has seen the country open its doors for
Ehsanullah, allowing the Taliban to demonstrate for freedom of Kashmir in the
streets, having a deal with a terrorist for land reasons. At the same time, the
Army has also been cracking down on peaceful demonstrators who demand their
constitutional rights and PTM members being arrested for no reason.
The Loralai location in Balochistan, where PTM was to
commemorate the killing of the poet Arman Loni by the Army, has been flooded
with water, internet been blocked and PTM members have been stopped from
entering the region.
With no results, because thousands of people joined the
demonstrations in Loralai and Karachi. But showing again the real face of Imran
Khan’s ‘Naya’ Pakistan: ordinary citizens and their demands are worth less than
nothing, while terrorists are allowed money, freedom and bargaining power.
(The views expressed
in this column are strictly those of the author)
