Behind the Lahore ( Qadianies Mosques) attacks?

By Afshain Afzal

The recent attacks on Mosques belonging to Qadianies in Garhi Shahu and Model Town areas of Lahore is worth condemnation in the strongest possible words. It was really shocking to see the bodies of those killed and injured in the incident. At this moment of grief and sorrow we can only curse those who killed so many innocent Pakistanis to make it an excuse to attack Muslims of Southern Punjab. In fact, the attacks have been carryout to launch an international propaganda against religious factions in Punjab and link them with acts of terrorism. It was even more disturbing that in a renewed attack on June 1, 2010, militants attacked Jinnah hospital in Lahore, where injured in the previous attacks were admitted, killing at least 12 people and injuring several others. Later, all the militants escaped after killing four security personnel. It is not the first incident that a sacred religious place has been attacked or destroyed. Over 397 Mosques and Madarras have been destroyed as a result of drone and missies attacks in the last five years in Pakistan, in which hundreds of innocent Muslims were killed.

The present attack bears significance because the attack occurred at a time when General (Retired) Sir Richard Dannatt, the former Chief of the British Armed Forces, who has been recently appointed as a Defence Advisor to British Prime Minister David Cameron, said something while talking on the BBC Radio 4 programme that was a forewarning of the attack. General (Retired) Dannatt said, "There is an Islamist agenda which if we don't oppose and face it off in southern Afghanistan, or Afghanistan, or in South Asia, then frankly that influence will grow. We could see it moving from South Asia to the Middle East to North Africa and to the high water mark of the Islamic caliphate in the 14th, 15th Century." He said that if Muslims adopted Islam’s political ideas and the Khilafah ruling system, this would be unacceptable and warranted a military response from Britain. Specifically talking about those living in Britain, he said, there is no issues with Muslims praying or enacting spiritual rituals, provided they surrendered political life to Western values. He said, "These comments echo the language of warmongers like Tony Blair, George W Bush and Donald Rumsfeld - all of them justified the war on terror by demonising the desire of Muslims to restore the Islamic Caliphate - something that enjoys overwhelming popular support in the Muslim World."

Although, it is too early to confirm anything but the attackers appear to be from the same group who attacked General Headquarters, Rawalpindi’s Parade Lane Mosque, Police installation in Lahore and other locations. Another important development in this month was that Hizb ut-Tahrir, a Britain based organization which has offices around the world, announced its campaign openly. Although the motive of this organization cannot be suspected at the moment but the timings and certain announced goals of Hizb ut-Tahrir would definitely attract foreign agencies to counter their moves. Few weeks back, the organization displayed banners at many locations in Rawalpindi and Islamabad that Hizb ut-Tahrir has launched some mass movement and declared war against those in power from 9 May 2010. Who are these people and why action was not taken against them is a riddle which one fails to comprehend. In a nutshell, a forewarning fire was shot in the air by the western nations that they are going to hunt orthodox Muslims everywhere in the world. The threat of General (Retired) Dannatt is before us that if Muslims especially in Afghanistan or South Asia adopted Islam’s political ideas and the Khilafah ruling system, this would be unacceptable and there would be a military response from Britain. One wonders if the recent attacks in Lahore are also linked with it, so that in the backdrop of these attacks, all those Muslims who qualify western apprehensions are eliminated.