The Jhang of Lashkars

[Kompromat]

The Jhang of Lashkars​

MUHAMMAD HASSAN MIRAJ

For whom the bell tolls

The 16th day of April in 1853 is special in the Indian history. The day was a public holiday. At 3:30 pm, as the 21 guns roared together, the first train carrying Lady Falkland, wife of Governor of Bombay, along with 400 special invitees, steamed off from Bombay to Thane.

Ever since the engine rolled off the tracks, there have been new dimensions to the distances, relations and emotions. Abaseen Express, Khyber Mail and Calcutta Mail were not just the names of the trains but the experiences of hearts and souls. Now that we live in the days of burnt and non functional trains, I still have a few pleasant memories associated with train travels. These memoirs are the dialogues I had with myself while sitting by the windows or standing at the door as the train moved on. In the era of Cloud and Wi-Fi communications, I hope you will like them.

enter image description here Besides the salinity, the fertility of Jhang is being ravished by something else as well. How could a land with a Sufi heart allow the desecration of graves? Why is Jhang no more the city that it used to be? The answer to this question is in fact the answer to the existing mayhem of our state. Jhang is the story that spans from sectarian violence to the killing of foreign tourists.

To many minds, the problem started when a dictator tried to legitimise his rule in the name of religion, while others smell American involvement in it; there are few who take it as a Zionist conspiracy and yet others who blame India for this. But, the journey towards the truth is just as difficult as it is uncomfortable. An unbiased and incisive analysis reveals that as soon as Pakistan became a reality, religious parties started showing their force.

The quarters that had once opposed the formation of the country, grew so powerful in a short span of time, that they enforced constitutional changes like the Objective resolution and summoned people to the parliament for passing a judgement on their religion. From the icons of Heer and Sultan Bahoo, to the fame of Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jhang has tread painful miles.A group of historians traces the Shia community of Jhang to the time when Umer Bin Hafas was appointed the Governor, while another group believes that it was an influence of the Ismaili regime in Multan. Regardless of the two opinions, when Mehmood of Ghazni won over Jhang, the official historian recorded it as a victory for Islam.

With the British, came the colonisation schemes and lands were allotted. Due to the prevailing Baradari system, large portions of land were allotted to Shias who had most of their tenants as Sunnis (of Barelvi influence). Whether it had an economic undertone or the liberal mindset of the Barelvi branch, to-date the licence for Tazia in Jhang remains with the Sunnis.When Pakistan came into being, a large number of refugees arrived at Jhang. Most of these immigrants came from the districts of Rohtak, Hissar, Gurgaon and Panipat and were staunch followers of the Deoband. They had left everything back home, save the dreams of a new land and the spirit for the revival of old faith. With the plunder of allotments and claims, the ideals for a newfound land were soon forsaken; however, the puritan ambition was strong enough to stay on. The universal remedy for homesickness, in case of immigrants, appears to be religion. Regardless of financial feasibilities, religious places develop faster in foreign lands.

A decade down the line, the demographic change was making its mark. The immigrant Deobandees initially frowned upon the liberal religious approach of Barelvis and then took it upon themselves to reform them. Interestingly, the first Manazra (religious debate) of Jhang did not take place between the Shia and Sunni but between a Deobandi and a Barelvi. The 50s saw, for the first time in Jhang, a Deobandi firebrand scholar slandering the landlords for being feudal and Shias. With one shot fired from this side, how could the other side refrain? Soon an act of contempt of the Sahaba was administered in the village of Hasso Balail by a local Shia landlord in 1957. That too, for the first time in the history of Jhang. As a result of these events, an organisation surfaced with the name of Majlis-e-Tahaffuz Namoos-e-Sahaba. A few peaceful years ensued and then started the vicious cycle of sectarian killings.

The murder of a Sunni Imam of ShorKot in 1964 was the first of its kind in Jhang, but no one noted that apart from being a Sunni, he was a Muslim and a human being too. After a gap of three years, another Imam was killed in Rodoo Sultan, who also believed in the oneness of God and was born a human being before being raised a Sunni.Apparently, the sectarian skirmishes started with the first of Muharram and subsided by the 1st of Rabi-ul-Awwal but then a subtle change started taking effect. The humility of the accent was being eaten up by hard talk. When the flash floods increased, the rage of the river finally spilled over the shores. The incident of Bab-e-Umar was not hard to foretell.

Out of the three entry points of Jhang, one was called Kheva Gate, in the memory of Kheva Khan, the father of Saheba. Tradition had it that every year on the seventh day of Muharram, a procession passed through this gate. Initially the name of the gate was changed to Bab-e-Umar and subsequently, both sides agreed not to mourn loudly in respect of the mosques en route. The mourners silently beat their chest and walked past the mosque. It was called khamosh matam.In the Muharram of 1969, the city administration was extra vigilant in the wake of a volatile situation. It sought guarantees from both sides for not inciting violence. On the eve of the sixth of Muharram, a banner with instigating remarks was displayed on the route of the procession. The administration hurried up and saved the disaster by talking both parties to a peaceful solution.

It was agreed that till the time the procession had not passed the mosque, the offensive wordings would remain covered. As soon as the procession reached the mosque, someone uncovered the banner. On seeing this, a participant of the procession, soaked a dirty cloth in the nearby drain and threw it at the banner. What followed next was the unprecedented violence. Had it not been the first day of Yahya Khan’s Martial Law, the killings would have never stopped at six.The issue, however, was not solely an act of sectarian violence. The individual who uncovered the wordings and the individual who flung dirt on it, were both employees of a local political leader, unfortunately a Shia.

Years after, the grandson of this Sial confessed that his grandfather wanted to bring down Col Abid Hussain’s rapport to avenge his defeat in 1946 elections. Other than clan politics, the rich of the city also added to this rift as they served the religion by paying off to their sect.When Jhang went to polls after this incident, the traditional seat set up was totally upset. Dressed in black, the widows of the Bab-e-Umar incident had mourned through the streets and everyone voted for their sympathy.But despite all this, the Shia Sunni issue remained on the back burner till 1974 as both sides were busy pushing the Ahmedis across the religious border. As soon as the Parliament declared Qadianis "Non Muslims", the venomous speakers directed their fury onto Shias.

The Deoband scholars that once toured the districts to "gather support against Qadianis" were now visiting the same mosques to propagate against Shias. The self proclaimed guardians of religion always came up with a fresh threat to Islam. Qadianis, Shias, Barelvis, one can’t help but wonder who will be next? Meanwhile two developments changed Jhang, forever. Firstly, the influence of Shia landlords started to recede. The inherited land was divided and distributed generation by generation. This curtailed the feudal clout and eventually, forced most of small scale farmers to migrate to neighbouring cities.

Secondly, the Gulf countries opened their gates to Pakistani labour. The deteriorating economic conditions at home and the promise of prosperity abroad did not pose a difficult question, hence many residents headed to greener pastures. After few years, the expats returned with the ideological baggage. With the expensive Rado watches, they wore the puritan faith. And along with the longing for their country, they brought home, the hatred for non-Arabs.This was the time when democracy was discarded from Pakistan and revolution enthralled Iran. While Zia upheld the Hanafi School in all spheres of life here, Khumaini implemented the Shia School in Iran. The revolution, besides scaring Arab monarchs, stirred the political awakening in the Pakistani Shias. An organisation named Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Fiqah-e-Jafriya was founded in 1979 and slowly started picking up tone.

When the state introduced the Ushr and Zakat Ordinance on the basis of the Hanafi School, the Shias coerced the government, in a three day siege of the parliament, to decide Shia religious affairs in accordance with the Shia School. Soon, scholars from Qum and Najaf flooded seminaries and baptised the belief, so “corrupted” by the secular sub-continent tradition. Pakistani Muslims were first reformed by Arabs and subsequently, Iranians. This also showed up in every day greetings when the country shifted from Khuda hafiz to Allah hafiz.With the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war, every expression was let loose. The prejudices and hatred, mostly imported, declared all traditions of peaceful co-existence that had illuminated Jhang for centuries, as a form of heresy.

In the year of 1985, Haq Nawaz Jhangvi founded Anjuman Sipah-e-Sahaba in a local mosque at Jhang. Famous as Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan today, the organisation had, five out of eight, founding principles aimed at declaring Shias as “non-muslims”. Formed to defend the honour of Sahaba, the group promoted a typical non-tolerant mindset and anyone who locked horns with them was first exterminated from religion and then from life. The mono-directional political thinking in the country, expanding network of madressahs, interlock of religion and business and the ethnic make-up of Jhang catalysed the growth of Sipah-e-Sahaba. Their financers came from the Promised Land and the sympathisers rose from Deoband. The mushrooming madressahs polluted young minds with sectarian prejudices.

These students then graduated to Taliban-run seminaries in Afghanistan, where they fell in love with their own truth and lost the ability to see through the other side. No religious and political leader had the moral courage to keep the children away from it. For many years, within the country, the state treated them as their strategic assets and outside the country, the Islamic monarchs supported them.Part scarred by the revolution and part bound by the Jihad next door, the network called the establishment watched Sipah-e-Sahaba grow. The sectarian undertone of the slogan for the enforcement of Sharia was loud and clear but none had the audacity to listen to these voices.

When one after another, Ehsan Elahi Zaheer, Arif Hussaini and Haq Nawaz Jhangvi were killed, Jhang saw the worst of the violence. In 1993, Sipah-e-Muhammad was formed and soon after Lashkar-e-Jhangvi saw the light of day. The Jhang of Sultan and Chander Bhan was now a battle scene. The streets which once buzzed with Heer now resounded with war cry. All the while, Quranic verses proclaimed that a single murder amounted to the murder of the entire humanity. Around Makkah, the home of the Saudi princes who visited Pakistan for game and donated hefty amounts to madressahs, the last sermon of the prophet reverberated.

"Just as you regard this month, this day, this city as sacred, so regard the life and property of every Muslim as a sacred trust". However, the passion for religion was too captivating for the sermon or the verses.While sectarianism instigated this bloodshed, it also influenced the politics. Be it the Peoples Party with socialist and leftist leaning or the Q league with enlightened moderation, no party in the country could make it to the Parliament House without shaking hands with religious politicians.

In 2002, Azam Tariq, a Taliban idealist and Sipah-e-Sahaba candidate from Jhang, contested elections from inside a prison. He would have been disqualified and stayed in prison, had he not been the crucial one vote that won majority for Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali. Soon after he moved to Parliament, he made his “phenomenal” speech where he pledged to transform the 28 selected cities in line with the Taliban’s Afghanistan, banning TV, radio and music.Like every election, this year too, flags of proscribed organisations dotted the city’s skyline. Though the candidate could not make it to Parliament, the vote count indicated that 70,000 residents of the city believed in this cause.

In this battle of belief, mostly the ordinary faithful fell from the both side. Besides being Shias and Sunnis, the deceased were doctors, engineers, lawyers and teachers. Other than target killing, firing and bomb blasts also claimed lives and did not discriminate between the mosque and the Imam Bargah. The TV at home and the billboards on the roads indicated the increased influence of religion in our lives while the blast-ripped tickers and blood-soaked newspaper pointed out that man is yet to find everlasting peace.

When Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claims the responsibility of a blast on Alamdar Road and the killing in Chilas, the sane beings in Jhang shy away from each other. But as soon as the conspiracy theories come to life and all fingers point towards neighbouring countries, they nudge their conscience back to indifference. About Heer, Sultan, Chandar Bhan and Salam, even if they existed in today’s Jhang, Lashkar would have taken care of them.

The Jhang of Lashkars ? 2 - DAWN.COM


@Hyperion @Argus Panoptes @Leader @Zarvan @ajpirzada

 

[SQ8]

The mono-directional political thinking in the country, expanding network of madressahs, interlock of religion and business and the ethnic make-up of Jhang catalysed the growth of Sipah-e-Sahaba. Their financers came from the Promised Land and the sympathisers rose from Deoband. The mushrooming madressahs polluted young minds with sectarian prejudices. These students then graduated to Taliban-run seminaries in Afghanistan, where they fell in love with their own truth and lost the ability to see through the other side. No religious and political leader had the moral courage to keep the children away from it. For many years, within the country, the state treated them as their strategic assets and outside the country, the Islamic monarchs supported them.]

Oh this is brilliant.. its as if not just the history of Jhang.. but that of entire Pakistan is laid bare.. and the culprits identified bare handed.

 

[Zarvan]

The Jhang of Lashkars​

MUHAMMAD HASSAN MIRAJ

For whom the bell tolls

The 16th day of April in 1853 is special in the Indian history. The day was a public holiday. At 3:30 pm, as the 21 guns roared together, the first train carrying Lady Falkland, wife of Governor of Bombay, along with 400 special invitees, steamed off from Bombay to Thane.

Ever since the engine rolled off the tracks, there have been new dimensions to the distances, relations and emotions. Abaseen Express, Khyber Mail and Calcutta Mail were not just the names of the trains but the experiences of hearts and souls. Now that we live in the days of burnt and non functional trains, I still have a few pleasant memories associated with train travels. These memoirs are the dialogues I had with myself while sitting by the windows or standing at the door as the train moved on. In the era of Cloud and Wi-Fi communications, I hope you will like them.

enter image description here Besides the salinity, the fertility of Jhang is being ravished by something else as well. How could a land with a Sufi heart allow the desecration of graves? Why is Jhang no more the city that it used to be? The answer to this question is in fact the answer to the existing mayhem of our state. Jhang is the story that spans from sectarian violence to the killing of foreign tourists.

To many minds, the problem started when a dictator tried to legitimise his rule in the name of religion, while others smell American involvement in it; there are few who take it as a Zionist conspiracy and yet others who blame India for this. But, the journey towards the truth is just as difficult as it is uncomfortable. An unbiased and incisive analysis reveals that as soon as Pakistan became a reality, religious parties started showing their force.

The quarters that had once opposed the formation of the country, grew so powerful in a short span of time, that they enforced constitutional changes like the Objective resolution and summoned people to the parliament for passing a judgement on their religion. From the icons of Heer and Sultan Bahoo, to the fame of Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jhang has tread painful miles.A group of historians traces the Shia community of Jhang to the time when Umer Bin Hafas was appointed the Governor, while another group believes that it was an influence of the Ismaili regime in Multan. Regardless of the two opinions, when Mehmood of Ghazni won over Jhang, the official historian recorded it as a victory for Islam.

With the British, came the colonisation schemes and lands were allotted. Due to the prevailing Baradari system, large portions of land were allotted to Shias who had most of their tenants as Sunnis (of Barelvi influence). Whether it had an economic undertone or the liberal mindset of the Barelvi branch, to-date the licence for Tazia in Jhang remains with the Sunnis.When Pakistan came into being, a large number of refugees arrived at Jhang. Most of these immigrants came from the districts of Rohtak, Hissar, Gurgaon and Panipat and were staunch followers of the Deoband. They had left everything back home, save the dreams of a new land and the spirit for the revival of old faith. With the plunder of allotments and claims, the ideals for a newfound land were soon forsaken; however, the puritan ambition was strong enough to stay on. The universal remedy for homesickness, in case of immigrants, appears to be religion. Regardless of financial feasibilities, religious places develop faster in foreign lands.

A decade down the line, the demographic change was making its mark. The immigrant Deobandees initially frowned upon the liberal religious approach of Barelvis and then took it upon themselves to reform them. Interestingly, the first Manazra (religious debate) of Jhang did not take place between the Shia and Sunni but between a Deobandi and a Barelvi. The 50s saw, for the first time in Jhang, a Deobandi firebrand scholar slandering the landlords for being feudal and Shias. With one shot fired from this side, how could the other side refrain? Soon an act of contempt of the Sahaba was administered in the village of Hasso Balail by a local Shia landlord in 1957. That too, for the first time in the history of Jhang. As a result of these events, an organisation surfaced with the name of Majlis-e-Tahaffuz Namoos-e-Sahaba. A few peaceful years ensued and then started the vicious cycle of sectarian killings.

The murder of a Sunni Imam of ShorKot in 1964 was the first of its kind in Jhang, but no one noted that apart from being a Sunni, he was a Muslim and a human being too. After a gap of three years, another Imam was killed in Rodoo Sultan, who also believed in the oneness of God and was born a human being before being raised a Sunni.Apparently, the sectarian skirmishes started with the first of Muharram and subsided by the 1st of Rabi-ul-Awwal but then a subtle change started taking effect. The humility of the accent was being eaten up by hard talk. When the flash floods increased, the rage of the river finally spilled over the shores. The incident of Bab-e-Umar was not hard to foretell.

Out of the three entry points of Jhang, one was called Kheva Gate, in the memory of Kheva Khan, the father of Saheba. Tradition had it that every year on the seventh day of Muharram, a procession passed through this gate. Initially the name of the gate was changed to Bab-e-Umar and subsequently, both sides agreed not to mourn loudly in respect of the mosques en route. The mourners silently beat their chest and walked past the mosque. It was called khamosh matam.In the Muharram of 1969, the city administration was extra vigilant in the wake of a volatile situation. It sought guarantees from both sides for not inciting violence. On the eve of the sixth of Muharram, a banner with instigating remarks was displayed on the route of the procession. The administration hurried up and saved the disaster by talking both parties to a peaceful solution.

It was agreed that till the time the procession had not passed the mosque, the offensive wordings would remain covered. As soon as the procession reached the mosque, someone uncovered the banner. On seeing this, a participant of the procession, soaked a dirty cloth in the nearby drain and threw it at the banner. What followed next was the unprecedented violence. Had it not been the first day of Yahya Khan’s Martial Law, the killings would have never stopped at six.The issue, however, was not solely an act of sectarian violence. The individual who uncovered the wordings and the individual who flung dirt on it, were both employees of a local political leader, unfortunately a Shia.

Years after, the grandson of this Sial confessed that his grandfather wanted to bring down Col Abid Hussain’s rapport to avenge his defeat in 1946 elections. Other than clan politics, the rich of the city also added to this rift as they served the religion by paying off to their sect.When Jhang went to polls after this incident, the traditional seat set up was totally upset. Dressed in black, the widows of the Bab-e-Umar incident had mourned through the streets and everyone voted for their sympathy.But despite all this, the Shia Sunni issue remained on the back burner till 1974 as both sides were busy pushing the Ahmedis across the religious border. As soon as the Parliament declared Qadianis "Non Muslims", the venomous speakers directed their fury onto Shias.

The Deoband scholars that once toured the districts to "gather support against Qadianis" were now visiting the same mosques to propagate against Shias. The self proclaimed guardians of religion always came up with a fresh threat to Islam. Qadianis, Shias, Barelvis, one can’t help but wonder who will be next? Meanwhile two developments changed Jhang, forever. Firstly, the influence of Shia landlords started to recede. The inherited land was divided and distributed generation by generation. This curtailed the feudal clout and eventually, forced most of small scale farmers to migrate to neighbouring cities.

Secondly, the Gulf countries opened their gates to Pakistani labour. The deteriorating economic conditions at home and the promise of prosperity abroad did not pose a difficult question, hence many residents headed to greener pastures. After few years, the expats returned with the ideological baggage. With the expensive Rado watches, they wore the puritan faith. And along with the longing for their country, they brought home, the hatred for non-Arabs.This was the time when democracy was discarded from Pakistan and revolution enthralled Iran. While Zia upheld the Hanafi School in all spheres of life here, Khumaini implemented the Shia School in Iran. The revolution, besides scaring Arab monarchs, stirred the political awakening in the Pakistani Shias. An organisation named Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Fiqah-e-Jafriya was founded in 1979 and slowly started picking up tone.

When the state introduced the Ushr and Zakat Ordinance on the basis of the Hanafi School, the Shias coerced the government, in a three day siege of the parliament, to decide Shia religious affairs in accordance with the Shia School. Soon, scholars from Qum and Najaf flooded seminaries and baptised the belief, so “corrupted” by the secular sub-continent tradition. Pakistani Muslims were first reformed by Arabs and subsequently, Iranians. This also showed up in every day greetings when the country shifted from Khuda hafiz to Allah hafiz.With the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war, every expression was let loose. The prejudices and hatred, mostly imported, declared all traditions of peaceful co-existence that had illuminated Jhang for centuries, as a form of heresy.

In the year of 1985, Haq Nawaz Jhangvi founded Anjuman Sipah-e-Sahaba in a local mosque at Jhang. Famous as Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan today, the organisation had, five out of eight, founding principles aimed at declaring Shias as “non-muslims”. Formed to defend the honour of Sahaba, the group promoted a typical non-tolerant mindset and anyone who locked horns with them was first exterminated from religion and then from life. The mono-directional political thinking in the country, expanding network of madressahs, interlock of religion and business and the ethnic make-up of Jhang catalysed the growth of Sipah-e-Sahaba. Their financers came from the Promised Land and the sympathisers rose from Deoband. The mushrooming madressahs polluted young minds with sectarian prejudices.

These students then graduated to Taliban-run seminaries in Afghanistan, where they fell in love with their own truth and lost the ability to see through the other side. No religious and political leader had the moral courage to keep the children away from it. For many years, within the country, the state treated them as their strategic assets and outside the country, the Islamic monarchs supported them.Part scarred by the revolution and part bound by the Jihad next door, the network called the establishment watched Sipah-e-Sahaba grow. The sectarian undertone of the slogan for the enforcement of Sharia was loud and clear but none had the audacity to listen to these voices.

When one after another, Ehsan Elahi Zaheer, Arif Hussaini and Haq Nawaz Jhangvi were killed, Jhang saw the worst of the violence. In 1993, Sipah-e-Muhammad was formed and soon after Lashkar-e-Jhangvi saw the light of day. The Jhang of Sultan and Chander Bhan was now a battle scene. The streets which once buzzed with Heer now resounded with war cry. All the while, Quranic verses proclaimed that a single murder amounted to the murder of the entire humanity. Around Makkah, the home of the Saudi princes who visited Pakistan for game and donated hefty amounts to madressahs, the last sermon of the prophet reverberated.

"Just as you regard this month, this day, this city as sacred, so regard the life and property of every Muslim as a sacred trust". However, the passion for religion was too captivating for the sermon or the verses.While sectarianism instigated this bloodshed, it also influenced the politics. Be it the Peoples Party with socialist and leftist leaning or the Q league with enlightened moderation, no party in the country could make it to the Parliament House without shaking hands with religious politicians.

In 2002, Azam Tariq, a Taliban idealist and Sipah-e-Sahaba candidate from Jhang, contested elections from inside a prison. He would have been disqualified and stayed in prison, had he not been the crucial one vote that won majority for Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali. Soon after he moved to Parliament, he made his “phenomenal” speech where he pledged to transform the 28 selected cities in line with the Taliban’s Afghanistan, banning TV, radio and music.Like every election, this year too, flags of proscribed organisations dotted the city’s skyline. Though the candidate could not make it to Parliament, the vote count indicated that 70,000 residents of the city believed in this cause.

In this battle of belief, mostly the ordinary faithful fell from the both side. Besides being Shias and Sunnis, the deceased were doctors, engineers, lawyers and teachers. Other than target killing, firing and bomb blasts also claimed lives and did not discriminate between the mosque and the Imam Bargah. The TV at home and the billboards on the roads indicated the increased influence of religion in our lives while the blast-ripped tickers and blood-soaked newspaper pointed out that man is yet to find everlasting peace.

When Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claims the responsibility of a blast on Alamdar Road and the killing in Chilas, the sane beings in Jhang shy away from each other. But as soon as the conspiracy theories come to life and all fingers point towards neighbouring countries, they nudge their conscience back to indifference. About Heer, Sultan, Chandar Bhan and Salam, even if they existed in today’s Jhang, Lashkar would have taken care of them.

The Jhang of Lashkars ? 2 - DAWN.COM


@Hyperion @Argus Panoptes @Leader @Zarvan @ajpirzada

First they are not based in Jhang any more they are more in Karachi and Multan than in Jhang secondly their main funding come within Pakistan not KSA Sir these bias people will never tell truth our whole nation is seriously divided on sectarian lines and most Zakat given by people which is more than 70 billion Rupees most of it goes to madrassahs and some of the unfortunately are involved in sectarian issues like three famous organisations Sipah e Sahaba and Lashakr e Jhangvi of Sunnis and one of Shia led by Sajid Naqvi

 

[ajpirzada]

nice read except few sweeping statements..

objective resolution was supported by the whole of muslim league (which included most of the companions of Jinnah) and not by the quarter which opposed pakistan. secondly, the majority of sunni and sufi religious elite had supported pakistan and the objective resolution. therefore, this statement in the article is simple ignorance...

the switch from Khuda Hafiz to Allah hafiz etc could very well be due to increased exposure to global cultures. to start with, Urdu is a mix of arabic, persian and sanskrit. Britishers added many subcontinental words to their language after they encountered this part of the world. same goes with all the other languages. no need to whine about these changes..
on the other hand, i have not seen those complaining about it also complaining about the influence of western and indian culture in their segments of the society. or wat about the screwed up Urdu we all speak? we cant even speak few proper sentences without adding an english phrase to it. and worst of all, this is considered to be educated. oh, most of our educated (the english medium creed) dont even remember how to write Urdu and increasingly losing their skill of reading it. but people are more bothered about khuda hafiz and Allah hafiz just because of their deep seated aversion to religion rather than their love for the language.

anyways the length of the article allows for few sweeping statements.. the sectarian nature of problem is very well highlighted though.

 

[Irfan Baloch]

talking Jhang , if one cant ignore Sipah Sahabah & Lashker Jhangiv then there is one more name that deserves a mention and thats a writer of children fiction in urdu back in the days called "Ishtiaq Ahmed" that guy had very famous spy stories targetting age groups 12 to 15.

i was his avid reader and started to notice the sectarian & religious poison he was feeding to the children
the guy was avid supporter of Sipha Sahabah & natural enemy of Shia's . not sure if he is till writing or not.
but he made good bucks and nurtured a generation of hate mongers.

you see, the indoctrination of hate doesnt have to be full blown in your face like TTP , Red Mosque or Sipah Sahabah. it can be subtle and in small quantities and indirect , hitting the sub conscience of the person who grows up believing that its ok to hate , kill and destroy people of "wrong" faith and beliefs system.

I am one of those who insists on Khuda Hafiz and if someone gets sentimental then I give him the doze of fe Aman Allah.. just to remind him that I am still a Muslim & I dont have any issue with the word Allah

 

[Chrome9]

Oh this is brilliant.. its as if not just the history of Jhang.. but that of entire Pakistan is laid bare.. and the culprits identified bare handed.

I agree, the funding came later on. Being a resident of Jhang and an avid historian of Jhang I can tell you the article isn't all factually correct neither all factually incorrect. Though it is pleasant to see literature on the topic in such public domain and people taking interest in it.
What it does highlight is the importance of the poltico-socio-economic factors that perpetuated the crisis. What one must understand is this was a initially a very local phenomena that had it's roots in political hierarchy, land and economic distribution, ethnic/biradri/demographic changes and local chronology of events and power-politics than it did with theological/sectarian difference. Funding from overseas came in much later and only exacerbated the situation. It gave these organisations means to become much bigger than what they initially wanted to become and gave them sophistication to recruit and run their organisations on a much larger level - It is then that they became monsters that we see today. The other common misconception is that the gulf states were alone in perpetuating this crisis. Iranian support to the equivalent organisation was equally as disastrous as both powers seeked a deadly game of one-up-manship via their respective proxies.
The only positive's are that militant activities in Jhang have pretty much ceased for over a decade now. I understand that isn't much solace to our brothers and sisters in other parts of the country (quetta,hazara etc) who regularly feel the with of this monster organisation.
Also local political arm has taken a significant hit - Ahle-Sunnat-Wal-Jamaat the political arm of SSP has taken a resounding beating by non other than N-league - It's long time patron.

 

[SQ8]

I agree, the funding came later on. Being a resident of Jhang and an avid historian of Jhang I can tell you the article isn't all factually correct neither all factually incorrect. Though it is pleasant to see literature on the topic in such public domain and people taking interest in it.
What it does highlight is the importance of the poltico-socio-economic factors that perpetuated the crisis. What one must understand is this was a initially a very local phenomena that had it's roots in political hierarchy, land and economic distribution, ethnic/biradri/demographic changes and local chronology of events and power-politics than it did with theological/sectarian difference. Funding from overseas came in much later and only exacerbated the situation. It gave these organisations means to become much bigger than what they initially wanted to become and gave them sophistication to recruit and run their organisations on a much larger level - It is then that they became monsters that we see today. The other common misconception is that the gulf states were alone in perpetuating this crisis. Iranian support to the equivalent organisation was equally as disastrous as both powers seeked a deadly game of one-up-manship via their respective proxies.
The only positive's are that militant activities in Jhang have pretty much ceased for over a decade now. I understand that isn't much solace to our brothers and sisters in other parts of the country (quetta,hazara etc) who regularly feel the with of this monster organisation.
Also local political arm has taken a significant hit - Ahle-Sunnat-Wal-Jamaat the political arm of SSP has taken a resounding beating by non other than N-league - It's long time patron.

Agreed, the Iranians and the gulf states fight their proxy wars within Pakistan... to further that, the conflict isnt always between Sunni-Shia.. rather it has so happened that certain gulf states have practiced upmanship on their particular blend of religion through these proxies in Pakistan.

 

[Bratva]

talking Jhang , if one cant ignore Sipah Sahabah & Lashker Jhangiv then there is one more name that deserves a mention and thats a writer of children fiction in urdu back in the days called "Ishtiaq Ahmed" that guy had very famous spy stories targetting age groups 12 to 15.

i was his avid reader and started to notice the sectarian & religious poison he was feeding to the children
the guy was avid supporter of Sipha Sahabah & natural enemy of Shia's . not sure if he is till writing or not.
but he made good bucks and nurtured a generation of hate mongers.

you see, the indoctrination of hate doesnt have to be full blown in your face like TTP , Red Mosque or Sipah Sahabah. it can be subtle and in small quantities and indirect , hitting the sub conscience of the person who grows up believing that its ok to hate , kill and destroy people of "wrong" faith and beliefs system.

I am one of those who insists on Khuda Hafiz and if someone gets sentimental then I give him the doze of fe Aman Allah.. just to remind him that I am still a Muslim & I dont have any issue with the word Allah

Irfan sahab, I grew up reading Ishtiaq ahmad stories, was an avid reader. Inspector and his kids. I didn't think I ever get that notion from his stories. My thinking remained balanced nor did I ever think of killing any apostle os shia just for his beliefs

 

[Kompromat]

I am a Jhang born and extremely proud of its people,who are simple,honest,hard working and take pride in hospitality. Two of major problems facing Jhang are landlords and Mullahs. Landlords have weakened due to the division of land over generations.

This venom of hate is alien to the land of heer and sultan bahoo. I believe Jhang will heal itself because it is blessed with Sufi's who preach love,they have survived all this before. Good news is that all major terrorists from Shia and Deoband are dead. The message of Sultan bahoo is going to win, there would be a day again in Jhang when people will sing heer in its streets.

 

[Sedqal]

Irfan sahab, I grew up reading Ishtiaq ahmad stories, was an avid. Inspector and his kids. I didn't think I ever get that notion from his stories. My thinking remained balanced nor did I ever think of killing any apostle os shia just for his beliefs

Me too (Jamshed Series as I recall). I never read anti-Shia stuff in the books but the books did contain very strong narrative against Ahmedis/ Marzais.

 

[Developereo]

had it's roots in political hierarchy, land and economic distribution, ethnic/biradri/demographic changes and local chronology of events and power-politics than it did with theological/sectarian difference.

You are right.
The article does mention that the seminal event of Bab-e-Umar was motivated by clan politics, not religion per se.

Years after, the grandson of this Sial confessed that his grandfather wanted to bring down Col Abid Hussain’s rapport to avenge his defeat in 1946 elections.