THREE ASSASSINATIONS
Three assassinations
Source http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-108518-Three-assassinations
Rahimullah Yusufzai
Rahimullah Yusufzai
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
On May 13 in Afghanistan and Pakistan, three known and elderly religious scholars were assassinated by unknown people in incidents of targeted killings. The blood spilled on that fateful day would likely become the reason for further sectarian divisions and dangerous feuds and cause more bloodshed. This was precisely the purpose of the perpetrators of these cold-blooded murders.
On May 13 in Afghanistan and Pakistan, three known and elderly religious scholars were assassinated by unknown people in incidents of targeted killings. The blood spilled on that fateful day would likely become the reason for further sectarian divisions and dangerous feuds and cause more bloodshed. This was precisely the purpose of the perpetrators of these cold-blooded murders.
Two of these assassinations took place in Pakistan and one in Afghanistan. In both countries, spilling blood is a common occurrence and the governments are largely helpless and incapable of providing security to citizens. Foreign interventions by the superpowers, first by the Soviet Union and then by the United States of America, contributed to the violence and instability in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Thirty-four years after the Moscow-backed communist Saur Revolution in Afghanistan, the country is still facing an unending conflict and its fallout has also made Pakistan unstable. With the US positioning itself to maintain a military presence in Afghanistan even after the planned Nato troops withdrawal in 2014 and Pakistan once again readying to serve as an overland supply route for the foreign forces, there is little possibility that the situation would become normal in the so-called Af-Pak region in the near future.
The assassinations in Pakistan took place in two corners of the country. In Karachi, Maulana Aslam Sheikhupuri was shot dead along with his driver by gunmen riding a motorcycle who intercepted his car in the Bahadurabad locality. The 54-year-old religious scholar, disabled in both his legs for three years after suffering a stroke, was on his way home after delivering his fortnightly lecture at the Al-Quran Courses Centre. A 1982 graduate of the famous Jamia Binori seminary who is said to have memorised the holy Quran in less than a year, Aslam Sheikhupuri was presently the head of the Tawabeen mosque and madressah in Gulshan-e-Maymar in Karachi. There was consensus that the deceased was apolitical and his focus had always been on Dars-e-Quran, or the teaching of the glorious Quran. He never spoke against any sect or people and his claim to fame was of a learned man of religion.
The second assassination of a religious scholar in Pakistan on May 13 could have political motives as Maulana Syed Mohammad Mohsin Shah was associated with Maulana Fazlur Rahman’s JUI-F. He was also a leading figure in the Marwat Qaumi Jirga, a voluntary organisation set up by the Pakhtun tribe, Marwat, to tackle the militants posing threat to peace in Lakki Marwat district, which is close to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) sanctuaries in South Waziristan. It required courage to defy the militants in an area so close to their strongholds. Besides, Maulana Mohsin Shah was a teacher to many among the militants and his word carried weight. This was the reason that he was credited with playing a crucial role in helping restore peace in the area.
Mohsin Shah was assassinated in his seminary Darul Uloom Halimia in Darra Pezu town. As one cleric put it, his was the biggest madressah from Peshawar to Dera Ismail Khan not in terms of its premises and buildings but in the context of the number of students there due to the good reputation of Mohsin Shah and other teachers. Students flocked to the madressah at the time of admissions, overwhelming its capacity. Two years ago, Mohsin Shah was apprehended by the security forces on suspicion, but Maulana Fazlur Rahman got him freed within 24 hours by convincing the authorities that be that he was a voice of reason in an area where religious sentiments could be easily inflamed by the arrest of a respected religious scholar.
In neighbouring Afghanistan, a “reformed” Taliban cleric, Maulvi Arsala Rahmani, was shot dead in Kabul on May 13. He was fired at from a passing car on a congested road in Kabul as he was being driven to work at the High Peace Council, an unwieldy 70-member body set up by President Hamid Karzai about two years ago to work for peace and negotiate with the government’s armed opponents, including the Taliban. A single bullet aimed at Rahmani’s heart caused his death. The killer appeared to be a sharp-shooter and the silencer-fitted weapon he was using isn’t easily available. Obviously, it was a perfectly executed assassination plan motivated by the desire to achieve multiple objectives.
Over the years, Rahmani had assumed a number of identities. An ethnic Pakhtun, he had been an Afghan Mujahideen leader based in Peshawar and active in Loya Paktia in southern Afghanistan during the jihad against the Soviet occupying forces. He was part of the Afghan Mujahideen government before joining the Taliban and becoming minister of higher education in their government. After the fall of the Taliban regime, he switched sides to join the new dispensation under President Karzai. The Taliban were angered by his disloyalty, but gaining the trust of Afghanistan’s new pro-West rulers also wasn’t easy. Sometimes, one would hear remarks that people like Rahmani were neither here nor there because the Taliban no longer trusted them and elements in the Karzai government were suspicious of their motives.
Presently, Rahmani was a senior figure in the High Peace Council and considered important due to his past links with the Taliban. It was felt he would be able to use his personal contacts with top Taliban figures to persuade them to agree to peace negotiations with the Afghan government. He was often referred to as a “key negotiator” in the High Peace Council, though the council had yet to find a real partner for negotiations due to the Taliban refusal to recognise its role. Frustration with the High Peace Council was rising due to its failure to even establish contact with the Taliban or sustain the dialogue with former Mujahideen leader Gulbaddin Hekmatyar’s Hezb-e-Islami, which has pulled out of the peace talks in protest against the signing of the recent US-Afghanistan strategic partnership agreement. The assassination of its chairman, Prof Burhanuddin Rabbani, in a Kabul suicide bombing on September 20 had dealt a severe blow to the High Peace Council and his son and successor, Salahuddin Rabbani, lacked the stature to give impetus to the council’s work. Rahmani’s assassination could make it even more difficult for the council to maintain contacts with the Taliban and gain acceptance as a credible peace-making body.
Assassination of key figures has been part of Afghanistan’s bloodied history. Often, the killings take place at key moments in the country’s history. Rabbani and Rahmani had been warlords in the past and were involved in bloodletting as leaders of armed groups group engaged in a struggle for power. However, in the last stage of their lives they became peacemakers. Though they lacked credibility in the eyes of the Taliban and many other Afghans, both were attempting to redeem themselves as they pursued peace in their homeland despite heavy odds.
In Pakistan, the assassination of Aslam Sheikhupuri and Mohsin Shah is the latest in the campaign to eliminate known religious scholars, particularly those courageous enough tell the truth and challenge powerful state and non-state forces. Among others, Maulana Yousaf Ludhianvi, Maulana Habibullah, Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, Mufti Abdus Sami, Mufti Atiqur Rahman, Mufti Jamil Khan, Maulana Hasan Jan and Maulana Noor Mohammad were eliminated and in most cases the killers weren’t even exposed out of fear, political compulsions or due to the government’s incompetence.
Tracking down and punishing the killers would obviously be a tall order. The least that could be done is to expose the sinister designs of those sponsoring assassinations of such known religious scholars who enjoy respect and are capable of reaching out to the militants. Eliminating such people is clearly part of plans to keep Afghanistan and Pakistan in perpetual violence.
Email: rahimyusufzai@yahoo.com
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