RAWALPINDI: Sunday’s targeted killing of a Deobandi cleric followed by the burning of an Imambargah has unfortunately reopened old sectarian wounds in the city.

Tension was evident at the largely attended funeral prayer offered for the slain Mufti Amanullah Khan on Monday at Liaquat Bagh, not far from the Darul Uloom Taleem-ul-Quran (DUTQ) seminary where he worked and taught.

Also read: Key seminary cleric shot dead in Rawalpindi

The seminary is part of the Taleem-ul-Quran mosque complex in Raja Bazar, which was at the centre of deadly sectarian riots in November last year involving both religious communities.

Law enforcement agencies had closed all roads leading to the sprawling bazaar for security reasons and the bazaar remained closed for the day in the memory of Mufti Amanullah.

An administrator of the burnt down Imambargah Shaheedan-e-Karbala, in the nearby market that sells tyres, meanwhile complained that police and rescue agencies did not respond quickly to their calls of distress when the mob attacked the Imambargah.

Both sects blame administration of inaction

“Gunjmandi police station is just few yards away but they didn’t come to rescue our religious place and some 600-year-old precious sacred books and manuscripts from being burnt,” Maulana Malik Jalal Haider, who also looks after the attached Masjid Shah Najaf, told Dawn.

“We repeatedly requested the police and the administration to provide us security but they took two hours to respond. Even our calls to rush firefighters after the mob put the Imambargah on fire were ignored,” he said.

“We don’t know who killed the Taleem-ul-Quran mosque leader. But our locality never ever had suffered sectarian violence,” he said. “This Imambargah of the Shia sect and the mosque of Sunni sect next door both were constructed by two real brothers,” he said to stress the homogeneity.

Dawn tried to contact District Coordination Officer Sajid Zafar Dall on his cell phone but he didn’t answer.Chief of the Jamiat Ishaat Al-Towheed Wal Sunnat Syed Zia Ullah Shah led the funeral prayers of Mufti Amanullah at the Liaquat Bagh.

Ulema belonging to various schools of thought, members of politico-religious parties, seminary students and other notables of the area attended the prayers.

They included Ahle Sunnat Wal Jammat (ASWJ) Chief Maulana Ahmed Ludhyanvi, Jamiat Ishaat Al-Towheed Wal Sunnat Ameer Maulana Muhammad Tayyab Tahiri, father of the slain leader and DUTQ caretaker and chief cleric Maulana Ashraf Ali, spokesman Hafiz Mohammad Siddique, Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazal Provincial Ameer Dr Qari Ateeq-ur-Rehman and Awami Muslim League President and MNA Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.

After the funeral prayer, the body of Mufti Amanullah was taken to Attock. Before burial, Maulana Ashraf Ali led another funeral prayer which was largely attended. JIATWS Nazim-e-Ala Syed Ziaullah Shah Bukhari was prominent among them.

Earlier, addressing a condolence meeting at Raja Bazaar, ASWJ Chief Maulana Ahmed Ludhianvi, slain cleric’s father Maulana Ashraf Ali and others vehemently condemned the assassination of Mufti Amanullah.

Maulana Ashraf said he and his son had been receiving threats and that he knew about his son’s killers.

Other speakers said that the crime would have been averted had the government punished the culprits involved in Raja Bazaar incident on Ashura last year in accordance with the law.

Mualana Ahmed Ludhianvi said that the government should arrest the target killers immediately.

“It is hard to restrain our activists from reacting to the brutal killing of Mufti Amanullah. How long can we restrain them? The government should act sensibly. It will be responsible if anything wrong happens,” he added.

Mufti Amanullah was returning to seminary from Chakri Road on a motorcycle with his student when they came under heavy gunfire from the unknown killers near Wapda Office at Bakra Mandi.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd , 2014