Pakistan - Gunmen assassinated a hardline Sunni Muslim politician and four other people as they drove in their car in the Pakistani capital on Monday, officials and the politician’s personal secretary said.
Maulana Azam Tariq, the head of the violent pro-Taliban group Sipah-e-Sahab and a member of Parliament, was among the dead, said Tariq’s personal secretary, Maulana Rashid Farooqi.
Sipah-e-Sahaba has been blamed by police for more than 400 killings in sectarian violence in Pakistan in recent years. Most of the victims have been Shiite Muslims, but attacks on Christians and Western interests have increased since Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf joined the U.S.-led war on terror.
Pakistan is almost certainly better off now that its chief sectarian bigot has been removed.
I hope the government makes sure that he recieves only a quiet family funeral, one that is not allowed to be used as cover for an orgy of sectarian hatred.
1) murder is murder and it is bad, although azam tariq has led a group which has caused a lot of devastation for innocent shias... I am against vigilante actions so not happy with this. Partially because this was done outside of the justice system...which however has not been successful in curbing the actions of groups like sipah e sahaba.
But especially since this will escalate the violence and more innocent people will get hurt when siaph goons retaliate against innocent shias. If the extremist groups kept targetting one another's leaders and members its a diff thing, kinda like bloods and crips gang violence, but when they start targetting inncent folks thats when it becomes a bigger issue.
2) killing of azam tariq can not be compared to the killing of innocent shias. The people who were killed a few days back were not running an extremist group, had they been tehrik e jafaraia's leaders of siaph e muhammad's leaders u could consider it equal. But those killed then were innocent people,a nd this person killed is the source of a lot of strife and has propogated and prmoted such extremism.
Sectarian terrorists all need to be shut down doesn't matter which sect they promote. These are mobsters not people of religion and need to be treated as such.
I dont think Shias are on a revenge path (as much as some indians would love to believe that), its just another one of those assasinations to put the country into turmoil.
Its just bunch of people on both sides who are using the name of sect/religion for their own sake. A normal Pakistani (either shia or sunni) has nothing to do with it. A normal person is more interested in feeding his family than killing the ppl from other sect.
I personally belong to sunni sect (not that I mention this in my everyday discussion) but I have many shia friends (with friendship ranging from 1 year to 20 years) and we never felt any hatred b/w each other. Occasionally I go to Imam-Bargah for prayers and sometime he end up showing into mosques for prayers and we never had a problem with this.
As far as the assassination of Aazam Tariq is concerned, I just wana say that we shouldn’t be happy on death of anyone no matter what and if we want to bring someone to justice it should always be through proper channel. If we go out in a street killing the accused ppl by ourselves, it will collapse our society. There is one verses of Quran that reminds me of putting restrain on myself and that is
“Killing of one innocent person is equal to the killing of all humanity”
and
“be-gunah k khoon k eik qatrey ke hurmat kabey ke hurmat say ziada hai”
I am not declaring Azam Tariq inncent nor I am accusing him of something but, my point is just that we should deal with these suspects through proper channel.
It's sad, after all he was an elected member of parliament, and since killing only begets killing. Majority of the Pakistanis are simply sick on this nonsense. We should not celebrate; it's only a matter of time before this blinded hatred will claim more innocent lives.
and in between all this killing & revenge killings, where exactly is that government and what exactly is it doing? We've seen this pattern of revenge strikes in the past and yet this incompetent bunch of lamers just set on their butt and now will come out with their usual rhetorics of nabbing the culprits within 48 hrs, dealing with hooligan with an iron fist blah blah blah
just a few days ago, in another thread there was someone making tall claims about how Musharraf government has improved the law & order situation, too bad the farce came to a blow at such an early age.
mad scientist..u wrote "True except for one issue. The vast majority of Shias being gunned downed are not militants. They are doctors, police, funeral mourners, etc.
This guy is the one who promoted, in fact led, the ideology that it's halal and a good deed to murder Shias.
Whilst I would have preferred to see him executed as a result of a fair trial, his deeds and actions were well known and quite frankly he received his just deserts in the absence of a court competent enough to try him.
He encouraged people to kill their brother Muslims despite their posing no threat in any way, shape or form - I have no sympathy for one any who does such deeds."
i agree with most of it but do u know he was in the jail and instead of getting punished, he got elected in the election and came out easily..i think he got what he deserved..u dont see shia target killing the innocents
Sheraz, there are also lots of shia terrorists of TJ backed by the Iranian government, who have been killing sunni leaders. You see, the problem with tit-for-tat killings is that almost always innocents fall as victims. This attrocity is no less than a cold-blooded murder, which is the beginning of yet another chapter of bloody sectarian violence. It reminds me of the murder of Jhangvi, when thirty bystanders were blown into pieces along with him. That gruesome crime also gave way to years of more killings, which saw majority of the shia leadership being wiped out. So, where does it all end?1?1
On one hand, you guys fully support these atrocious deeds without fully comprehending the gruesome consequences, yet you also decry when some lunatic -blinded with hatred-goes on a killing binge mowing down innocents in some Imam bargah. We must all condemn these violent acts together as Muslims and Pakistanis, if we ever want to quell this uncontrolled violence.
What took so long? Azam Tariq should have been executed by the state instead of getting a seat in parliament. But when you live by the sword, you die by the sword. He was responsible for a lot of innocent deaths.
Outlaw, when was the last time any shia terrorists killed sunni doctors, engineers, police officers in a systematic campaign to eradicate sunni influence in the country?
I hope you can see the difference between innocent shias being gunned down and this terrorist leader.
you mean eradicating shia influence..? I don't need to go through previous news clippings to prove that number of renowned sunni scholars have been killed over the past years by shia terrorists. If this campaign hasn't been precisely targeted and systematic, then what is it?
Hatred is a two way street, and certainly the shia group has been no archangel when it comes to revenge. So, there you have it now, and as much as I am disgusted and repulsed by all this, I just pray that for once the sanity prevails and we don’t let ourselves get sucked into these bloody chronicles of settling scores
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by outlaw: *
Hatred is a two way street, and certainly the shia group has been no archangel when it comes to revenge. So, there you have it now, and as much as I am disgusted and repulsed by all this, I just pray that for once the sanity prevails and we don’t let ourselves get sucked into this bloody chronicles of settling scores
[/QUOTE]
Well said. Sectarianists of ANY hue need to be dealt with and those who try and differentiate between 'types' of sectarian hatred are no better than those they condemn.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Imdad Ali: *
What took so long? Azam Tariq should have been executed by the state instead of getting a seat in parliament. But when you live by the sword, you die by the sword. He was responsible for a lot of innocent deaths.
Outlaw, when was the last time any shia terrorists killed sunni doctors, engineers, police officers in a systematic campaign to eradicate sunni influence in the country?
I hope you can see the difference between innocent shias being gunned down and this terrorist leader.
[/QUOTE]