The Blood-spattered Repercussions of “Operation Silence”

Some events remain mysterious in Pakistan even after massive loss. The unfortunate deaths of Liaqat Ali Khan, Ziaul Haq and Benzir Bhutto are still a riddle. Red Mosque’s inexplicable activities and subsequent bullet operation by the government to gun down the religious fanatics are still an enigma. President Musharraf and his coterie was of the view that “Operation Silence” was launched to root out miscreants who were involved in anti-state activities and were challenging writ of the state in the Federal Capital. The opposition political parties and other critics taxed the government that the imbroglio resulting from the besieging operation was a self-created drama of the hammer men to haze various national concerns. It was launched to divert attention of the people from various core issues. It was triggered when general elections were on the cards, legitimacy of the President after five years tenure was in the balance, judicial crisis was at its peak, the opposition was going to conduct APC rug beat in London on July 7, 2007 and the relentless rains hit the country ensuing in floods leading to hundreds of casualties and pushing thousands to skate on their uppers that jolted the arrangements of the disaster management authorities.

Lal Masjid was built in 1965 under the aegis of Maulana Muhammad Abdullah who belong to Sunni Deobandi sect. Zia’s Islamization boosted the role of religious seminaries. The religious institutions were patronized by late general Ziaul Haq with the financial support of CIA because they were used for recruitment and training of Mujahidin transported from all over the Muslim world to fight proxy war of Uncle Sam in Afghanistan against the colossal Soviet Union. Red Mosque played a vital role in this in this context. America was funneling massive funds to the religious institutions to achieve its goals of becoming sole superpower of the world by ousting USSR. The Muslim fighters were hailed heroes by USA and the capitalist western countries. Subsequent to dismemberment of USSR several religious factions emerged as pressure groups. After the assassination of Maulana Muhammad Abdullah in 1998 his sons Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi and Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi took the charge of the mosque and contiguous madrassa. The Ghazi Brothers failed to comprehend the political and global scenario subsequent to 9/11 tragedy. Ultimately, they threw down gauntlet to the government for establishment of Sharia and threaten for launching a suicide bombing campaign if the establishment launched gun operation against them.

Ultimately, the government crossed the Rubicon and the Lal Masjid prolonged standoff thick with tension exploded into violence and culminated in bloodbath. The bullet operation inundated the streets of the federal capital and spattered the ambulances ferrying causalities with fresh red blood gushing out from the scattered dead and damaged bodies. Both sides held responsible each other for the carnage. The shootout followed months of apprehension and uptight situation over the mosque’s increasingly barefaced challenges to writ of the government. A few days before the “Operation Silence” the kidnapping of seven Chinese citizens as part of an anti-vice campaign mounted further tension. One of the mosque’s main goals was to make Pakistan an Islamic state along the lines of Afghanistan under Taliban rule, which lasted from 1996 until the US-led invasion in October 2001.The government alleged that terrorist and suicide bombers from an Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic militant group were taking sanctuary in the mosque.

The regime in power faced swelling criticism at home and abroad over the failure to crackdown and bring to book the seminary administration. It is strange that Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa have been working for many decades. But all of a sudden Maulana Abdul Rasheed Ghazi and Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi became nosy parkers by challenging writ of the state and got international fame by threatening to launch suicide bombing in case of any gun battle operation. These radical elements were never so well known even within Islamabad. They never so bragged and confronted the government since the birth of these institutions. How it happened within short duration of six months? Who was supporting Ghazi brothers behind the scenes? These questions are still a baffling.

Tension fomented when the baton-wielding male and burqa-clad female students swarm over a public library in January 2007.Subsequently, a few months later these radical actions climaxed into bloodshed. This unprecedented maneuver has thrown rank and file into confusion. Majority of the public are of the view that most probably some mysterious hands deliberately brought into being the crisis and the hidden facts may never come to the surface that is very common in the country’s history. The rulers should also bear in mind that bullets cannot bomb out deeply ingrained religious bigotry. Deaths and wounds resulting from fierce gun battles can smash up a few agitators but they cannot exterminate even just the tip of the iceberg of widely prevalent fanaticism all over the country. It is the law of human nature that force, which the contemporary rulers in most of the countries of the world have considered as penicillin to treat all social evils, can transiently make threadbare the germs of sedition but they spread like endemic cancer in the society after re-eruption. Peace cannot emanate from the barrels of guns. Gun battle never brings peace and harmony in any society.

Machine guns, rockets, hand grenades, shelling, G-2 and G-3 rifles, kalashinkovs, mortars, tear gas, gunship helicopters, anti-aircraft guns, tanks, bullet proof vehicles, APC automobiles, media coverage, a large score of elite military commandos, special forces, rangers, police and intelligence agencies, etc., i.e., every type of force and every kind of facility was used to gun down a shrunken throng of religious extremists. Did any government take any major step to radically wipe out carcinoma of vulgarism spread by a fat horde of catchpenny coarse-grained lunatic fringes since the birth of this “Land of the Pure People”? Did any government launch any campaign to bulwark the swingeing assault of rancid western civilization to make the country a “Laboratory of Islam” which was promised by the father of the nation?

Media played a tremendously unconstructive role before and after the operation. Media hype was deliberately created before and during the operation. Before, the operation the mass media propagated that why the government is providing carte blanche to the religious fanatics to intimidate citizens and foreigners under the cover of self-styled Sharia. The print and electronic media pressurized the establishment that it should not bow before the fanatic by accepting their undue demands. However, after the bloodstained operation was over the media propagated that the people victimized by the operation were innocent and no trace of the presence of foreign elements was found. Therefore, in order to safeguard the national interests it is mandatory that print and electronic media should be properly monitored so that it cannot ignite the already simmering situation.

Suicide bombing incidents in Pakistan have increased manifold after the commencement of “Operation Silence”. The current upsurge of terrorism and spate of suicide bombing in Pakistan are the repercussions of Red Mosque operation because the religious seminaries have sympathizers who are fighting with Pakistan Army in the Northern Areas that are the breeding grounds of miscreants. Therefore the operation has mounted the numbers of extremists and terrorist elements. Those who surrendered during the operation, the near and dear ones of those who were injured or killed and thousands of old students of the seminaries have grudges against the personalities and institutions who ignited and carried out the operation. In addition to this there are hundreds of thousands sympathizers of the institutions on sectarian grounds because the institutions have been governed by Deobandi shool of thought. Ironically, the minds who mishandled the operation failed to judge its grave and gory repercussions.

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan is at the crossroads of dual extremisms. One revolutionary assemblage wants to make it a theocratic state while the other crank stumblebum cluster wants to make it a secular state. Since the birth of this country most of the rulers used the slogan of Islam with clandestine intention of strengthening grip on the bridles of power. They propagated to make the country a true Islamic State but they ruled the roost like feudal lords. In the constitution of 1956, 1962 and the currently working constitution of 1973, which has been amended and mutilated several times, there are several provisions to make the country a true modern Islamic Republic. But actually it never happened even after the lapse of six decades. These are the very provisions for which the men on good wickets hired clergy to Islamize their every action. Even the Zia’s Islamization program was commenced by the dictator to continue his despotic rule.It has given the nation the bitter fruits of Afghan refugees, sectarianism, narcotics and Kalashnikov culture to the country. Comte de Salvandy (1795-1856), French nobleman fittingly attributed, “We are dancing on a volcano.”1The government should open new religious institutions that can teach all kinds subjects in addition to religious topics that is mandatory to turn away the volcano of extremism, terrorism and suicide bombing. There is crying need of bringing all religious institutions under the government supervision to monitor their funding, syllabi and connections with foreign seminaries and organizations so that they can be reformed to avert any future furious adventure and its blood-spattered aftermaths.