 religious parties took up the issue of blasphemy and the relevant laws in a big way and launched a campaign in the name of Namoos-i-Risalat (The Prophet’s honor). Apart from a great deal else, the mullas declared the Governor a heretic and an apostate. On November 24, 2010 there was a demonstration of 150 maulvis outside the Governor House calling for his head. On December 31, more than 20,000 religious bigots congregated in Karachi and condoned Taseer’s murder. The authorities took no action against these outrages. The ruling party nor the secular lobby took the trouble of confronting the mulla’s onslaught on any forum in an organized and well-orchestrated manner. The government acted as if the issue deserved only appeasement or neglect.
Within hours of his assassination, students from the religio-political party Jamaat-i-Islami texted celebratory messages about the murder, and on Facebook, pages lionizing the Governor’s killer quickly found hundreds of supporters. Munawwar Hasan, the JI chief stated that the Governor himself was responsible for his murder. Fazal ur Rahman the JUI Chief seemed to issue a veiled warning to supporters of Mr. Taseer, saying that sympathizing with a blasphemer was just as extreme as blasphemy itself. More than 500 religious leaders of Jamaat-e-Ahle Sunnat, a leading Barelvi religious party, forbade its followers to either pray or attend the funeral prayers for Mr. Taseer.
The Khatibs of the Badshahi Mosque and the Governor House mosque refused to lead the funeral prayers of the fallen governor. Both are on the government’s pay-roll.
Supporters of this heinous act showered Qadri with rose petals when he appeared in court. He was garlanded by the president of the lawyers’ wing of the local PML (N). Reportedly, hundreds of lawyers volunteered to take on Qadri’s defense free of charge.
A number of TV anchors indirectly blamed the Governor. Pakistan’s free wheeling (and conservative) television talk shows publicized the fatwas against Taseer and misrepresented his principled position on the blasphemy law as itself blasphemy. The Urdu press, as usual, acted generally hostile to the secular and liberal sentiment. The daily Nawa-i-Waqt spared only one inch of single column space to report the Resolution of condemnation by the KP Assembly against the assassination, but it splashed the refusal of Khatibs to lead the funeral prayers of the deceased, over 3 columns on its front page.
The ruling party PPP, after the murder, distanced itself from the governor and from Sherry Rahman, another party liberal who had urged a review of the Blasphemy laws. The PPP declared the assassination a political murder (as opposed to religious).
Mr. Rehman Malik, the federal interior minister declared that if anyone blasphemed in his presence, he would shoot him. The government has declared that it would not try to amend the Blasphemy laws. In Karachi the government agreed to install a 10-memebr penal of ulama to look into cases of blasphemy accusations.
Having seen that the government was unwilling to resist the pressure and is retreating fast, the clerics decided to push further, and declared that they would hold a big rally in Lahore on January 30.
The above would seem very distasteful, wrong, even unacceptable to most of the Pakistani elite, but they are a witness that all this, even worse, has been happening to Ahmadis for the last 36 years. However, most of the elite decided to look the other way, all along. The mulla, now in the habit of maltreatment of a weaker section of the society, has mustered enough experience and audacity to take on the society which was reputed to be primarily tolerant and rational.
Kohat; January 12, 2011: The bullies of the local Tehrik Khatme Nabuwwat had broken open the lock of the sealed Ahmadiyya mosque and had occupied it. The miscreants were led by a former MNA Javed Ibrahim Piracha, a member of JUI (F). The police moved fast, recovered the mosque and resealed it.
The police took serious notice of this deliberate and malicious act of entry into a place of worship that was not theirs, fomenting a riot, refusing to obey lawful orders of the police etc, and booked all the participants under PPCs 295-A, 295,147/148, 188, 488.
The accused moved the court for bail, but the Sessions Court rejected their plea. Accordingly, the police arrested them all.
Handling of this case by the District officials is exceptional in many ways. It is a model, which if followed all over Pakistan, will dilute greatly the threat of the unscrupulous mullas to the society and the state.
Kot Shah Alam, district Hafizabad; October 2011: Mulla Saleem, an anti-Ahmadi cleric thrived on sectarian politics in this village. To his bad luck, he met a rare police officer who knew how to handle his type.
i. You do not respect the law and use the loudspeaker unlawfully. The SHO told the police post to register a report against the mulla.
ii. Only two men support you in the village, while the rest are against you.
iii. Did you take permission for the procession of October 30? The mulla’s answer was, ‘No’.
iv. You do not respect the law so it is better that you leave the village. The mulla said that all this was insinuated by Ahmadis and the man who beat him in the mosque was also an Ahmadi. This was a lie.
The PML(N) party of Sharif brothers takes the credit for keeping track of such ‘jewels’ from the judiciary and providing them employment from public purse, in top positions, even after their retirement.
It is reasonable to assume that this Justice (R) must have given some more laudable verdict than merely the Ghazi Ilm Din remarks to earn perpetual gratitude of Sharif Brothers. It would make an interesting subject for a researcher.
“No doubt Mian Shahbaz Sharif patronizes us….
“The US is in pursuit of our nuclear assets and they have reportedly martyred Usama, but we do not know if he is alive, dead or in custody of Americans. He is a charismatic personality. Our rulers intend to demolish his residence in Abbotabad so that it does not become a shrine (dargah).They, thus wish to erase his name, but neither the US nor our rulers can erase the name of a Mujahid and martyr like Usama. For the last 63 years we have never received whiff of fresh air from Afghanistan except during the rule of Mujahideen.
Rabwah: Mr. Muhammad Iqbal, a convert, was accused of blasphemy in 2004 by a mulla and his acolyte in district Faisalabad. He was arrested and sentenced to imprisonment for life. Iqbal appealed to the High Court against the verdict. While awaiting a hearing of his appeal, he stayed in prison for over six years. Eventually he was acquitted of the charge by the appellate court last year.
Iqbal appears to have recovered from the tragedy that afflicted him for years, however he is no longer able to squat or sit on his knees, as that hurts him. When asked the reason, he said that it was the after-effect of the police torture inflicted upon him on his arrest six years ago. Why, at all, did they torture him? “It was for religious prejudice and hate; they called me kafir (infidel), murtad (apostate) and beat me up with heavy sticks. They pressed a steel roller over my calves and thighs to torture me and compelled me to admit what I had not said or done. They thought that they were thus acting pious”, he said. His disability appears to be permanent.
“After I came out, the mulla and his false witness died within the same week”, he says. He thinks it is a sign of God that the false accusers have perished. Iqbal, however, is unable to return to his village and attend to his family farm to make a living.
The three faced charges in a faith-based fabricated accusation of murder. Initially ten Ahmadis were named as accused, and false witnesses were presented. The defense proved that the witnesses were liars. So the judge acquitted seven of the accused, but by some queer reasoning accepted the evidence of the same liars ordered hanging of three innocent Ahmadis for the death of the mulla and his son. The three accused appealed against the verdict.
A PUNJAB University (PU) spokesman has alleged that criminals in the ranks of Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) have been extorting money from publishers in the name of A‘anat and it was its only interest to organize a book fair.
Chak 63/DB, District Bahawalpur: Mulla Ishaq Saqi of Bahawalpur thrives on spreading hate and communal discord. Ahmadis are his favourite target. Saqi went over to Chak Nr. 63/DB to deliver the Friday sermon on June 10, 2011. Rather than saying anything spiritual or moral, he went headlong into the Ahmadiyya ‘menace’, and used foul language to