42

Sectarian protection to criminals
The terrorist and subversive activities, after their peak in 1987, in­creased again in 1990 and 1991. This phase was also the direct result of the Afghan crisis even though it was after the withdrawal of the Russian forces. Some of the guerrillas, who had unbounded religious zeal and were trained in war conditions in Afghani­stan, took to the crime world in Pakistan and made a special target of their rival sect. The sectar­ian terrorism, because of its ideology, its exploita­tion by the enemies of Pakistan and the easy avail­ability of weapons of all kinds, created a dreadful scenario of or­ganized cold-blooded murders and dacoities.

The sectarian organizations provided the only blanket of protection to many criminals, who had been abandoned by politicians and others. I ex­plained the complex situation to many Shia and Sunni leaders but, blinded by their strong prejudices, they refused to open their eyes to reality.
Even the authorities at the highest levels had little understanding of the phenomenon. The Interior Ministry, on the advice of the Intelligence Bureau and the ISI, proposed to ban both the Sipah-i-Sahaba (Sunni) and the Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Fiqa-i-Ja’faria (Shia). It was a very naive view and could not help in solving the problem in any way.
It was just not possible to seal and flush out the imam bargahs and mosques that pro­vided sanctuaries to criminals of the two sides. The sectar­ian leaders planned killings and sabotage activities in their places of worship, justifying it in the name of religion and as a measure of self-defence.
The criminals used for the purpose had their own objectives. They knew that nobody could touch them as long as they were operating from the places of worship under a cover of religious duty. They could thus safely continue drug trafficking, gun-running, banditry, abduction for ransom and other crimes. The targets were usually the members of the opposing sect. The abductees were kept in the mosques and imam bargahs, and were tor­tured, sometimes even killed.
If both leading sectarian organizations were banned, they would cer­tainly protest loudly and use their links in the political parties. The govern­ment would be on the defensive, not knowing what to do next. The higher courts would have also found the action unjustified unless satisfactory proofs of the criminal planning and acts were provided. The intelligence agencies were, as usual, vague and indulged in wishful thinking. (After all, it is the government that ultimately has to face the consequences, not the intelligence agencies.) On the other hand, the agencies could not provide any definite proof of foreign funding when we all knew that the two organizations had powerful and resourceful foreign patrons.
A high-level meeting was called in Islamabad to decide about banning the two sectarian organizations. Everybody was for an easy way out. So, I decided to raise a basic question. I asked, “Are you interested in eliminating or minimizing the real problem or simply in making this meeting appear as a success? Even if you take a decision to ban the two organizations, it will have no effect unless it was backed by our capability on the ground. We have little capability so far and still less information. The strong wall of insu­lation around the sectarian organizations, created by religious frenzy, has to be pulled down sensibly but strongly. I am trying to penetrate their inner circles. Let me isolate the criminals and crush them. Only then the problem will become easy to tackle. It is always the criminals, who are hired to create confusion and disruption. It is my firm belief that no power on earth, despite all its resources, can disrupt our peace if we control and crush the criminals.”
The participants in the meeting were not pleased with my views. They had grandiose plans of “ruthless suppression and bulldozing measures to crush the enemy agents.”

Breakthrough in Layyah. The Special Branch identified the danger­ous and violent criminals, who had been operating under the cover of sectar­ian organizations. I advised the range DIGs and SPs of the affected districts to go after the real criminals, not the persons who, under pressure from either sect, had been named falsely in FIRs or in investigation reports. As a result, the police did show the nerve to stick to truth with courage and conviction.
The first breakthrough was made by Dera Ghazi Khan range police during the investigation of the murder of a religious leader. As the matter is in the courts, naming anybody from any side will create complications. Therefore, only the outline of my strategy and police methodology will be given to indicate the dimensions of the problem.
The real culprits were arrested and interrogated. With patience and painstaking hard work, the entire background and planning were discovered. The patrons of the culprits created all kinds of pressures, including agitation and big processions. However, DIG Irfan Mahmood stood firm. I advised him to explain the truth with evidence to even those who agitated or brought delegations. I knew truth would have its own way because people would sense it, including the lower ranks of the involved organizations themselves. Slowly and steadily, the truth would demolish the bulwarks raised on the piles of lies.
The Layyah breakthrough gave us more extensive information on the accomplices and methods of the culprits and helped in working out many other cases. In one such case, six desperadoes were arrested from a house in Dera Ghazi Khan. They were planning to loot the salaries of teach­ers from the school cashier, who was to disburse the amount on the first day of the month. The money was to be spent on getting released on bail the accused arrested in the Layyah case. If the accused were not bailed, they were to be snatched from police custody on their way to the court.
During interrogations, it was learnt that three of their accomplices had gone to the Afghan refugee camp in Mi­anwali to get more lethal weapons for their mission. On getting informa­tion in time, the Sargodha police inter­cepted and arrested them. Some of the criminals had fought in Afghanistan and had become hardened by fighting but the skill and courage of the police paid off in penetrating the network. Some of their patrons protested vehe­mently but the police followed the truth. When the video recordings of inter­rogations were shown to the protective ulema, many of them withdrew their support.

“We have to survive.” The police then arrested many members of sectarian organizations involved in serious crimes like dacoity and murder in various parts of the province. Two young men were arrested in Narowal. During interrogation, they divulged that they and their accom­plices had committed hundreds of dacoities and murders. They had killed two police constables while fleeing after a dacoity in Shah Jamal, Lahore, gunned down a marriage party going in a bus in Narowal, looted trains and trucks, robbed even army officers and soldiers in Sialkot. They identified and led the police to 18 of their criminal associates, who were on a banditry rampage through­out the prov­ince. They were picked up with great difficulty and hard work. Surpris­ingly, they were young, sturdy, religious men and all had fought in Afghanis­tan. They were using the cover of Sipah-i-Sahaba, although the organization claimed to be unaware of their criminal activities.
In Ahmadpur East, a maulvi was killed. The people captured red-handed two of the fleeing culprits. During interrogation, they disclosed that they belonged to Nifaz-i-Fiqa-i-Ja’faria and were involved in scores of dacoi­ties. Their third accomplice, who ran away from the spot, was a medical stu­dent from Khangarh, Muzaffargarh district. They had also thrown a bomb in the house of another imam masjid, killing or injuring his whole family. They believed that they were doing a religious duty in such cases.
“But why crimes like dacoities?” they were asked.
“Because we have to survive to be able to kill the enemies,” they ex­plained nonchalantly. Five of their other accomplices were arrested in due course.
The Rawalpindi police arrested five bearded bandits in a hot pursuit while they were running away after committing a dacoity in Sadiqabad mu­halla of the city. They tried to take refuge in a madrassa run by Sipah-i-Sa­haba. They had committed dozens of thefts and dacoities in and around Rawalpindi, having been inspired by the examples and exploits of some of their seniors, who were doing the same as a religious duty.
In Faisalabad, the police went in hot pursuit of bandits, who were flee­ing after committing a bank dacoity and killing a police constable on guard duty. They were ar­rested from a Sipah-i-Sahaba mosque where they had taken refuge. In the presence of their leaders, they led the police to the re­covery of hand grenades buried in the courtyard of the mosque. They had also been to Afghanistan.
In Lahore, several such gangs of dacoits were arrested. Fourteen mem­bers of three different gangs were extremely proud that they had always tar­geted for looting the houses and shops of only the opposite sect and none else.

Both sides were indulging in cold-blooded murders and were commit­ting planned crimes of the most reprehensible nature. (Only a few incidents out of thousands have been narrated here.) It was no longer a situation cre­ated at the spur of the moment out of religious frenzy. The criminals, for their own advantage, had given a dangerous dimension to the existing sectar­ian hatred and bigotry and were exploiting it most callously. The country was fast moving towards mayhem. Somebody had to have the vision to see through the game and save the country with courage and conviction. The Punjab Police took it on itself as a patriotic duty, without passing on the blame to others or seeking simplis­tic solutions like banning the sectarian or­ganizations.

The battle of Jhang. The worst hit district in the entire province was Jhang, known for the legendary love story of Heer and Ranjha. It had be­come a ghost city as a large part of the population had fled, afraid of the col­lusion between the bigots and bandits. The city was in the grip of terror and was ruled by Kalashnikovs. The policemen living in the muhallas were more obedient to the gun-toting toughs than their own seniors. The slightest sus­picion of having passed on any information meant death to these policemen and their families. The sources of information had dried up and the admini­stra­tion was totally in the dark, reacting to violent and ruthless murders in a desultory and confused manner.
After clearing the other districts to some extent, the police now started tightening the noose around the mafia in Jhang. The religious leadership of both sects was on the defensive when we arrested a large number of crimi­nals, who were under their protection. (It was a variant of the badmash-pal scheme of the village zamindars, who protect criminals for their own objec­tives.) I confronted the leaders of both sects with details of cases and evi­dence against indi­viduals. They were extremely embarrassed. I told them how the criminals were using their cover for their own wicked objectives of pushing drugs, trading in weapons, committing dacoities and even running gambling dens and prostitution rackets.

I selected Rana Abdul Wasey, a very intel­ligent, experienced and brave officer, for posting him as SP Jhang. He began with an analysis of the situa­tion in its historical and social perspective. Big Shia zamindar families had always dominated the politics in Jhang though majority of the population was Sunni. After Independence, a flux of primarily Sunni refugees came from India. After settling down, they tried to dislodge the Shia families from posi­tions of political power. The anti-Shia rhetoric was used by the Sunni ulema to dissuade the Sunni majority from voting for Shia candidates. The ploy worked and ultimately even a leading politician like Syed Abid Husain (father of Abida Husain) was defeated in elections to the National Assem­bly. The political origins of the machinations, in due course of time, grew into enmities on both sides.
Rana Wasey mapped out the activists of both sides and, patiently and painstakingly, identified the desperadoes and their hideouts. The Special Branch provided him further information pertaining to activists and crimi­nals, obtained through the interrogation of culprits, who were arrested in other districts but had links in Jhang.
With the help of specific information from outside Jhang, Wasey’s men suc­ceeded in arresting two Shia culprits immediately after the murder of a Sunni religious leader. Their interrogation led to a major breakthrough into their network. Seven of their associates were captured immediately and many more later. The impregnable fort of fear started collapsing. Three criminals, belonging to Sipah-i-Sahaba, were arrested for dozens of terrorist activities. Their arrest uncovered most of the latest linkages with various tribal and po­litical groups that were exploiting religious sentiments and pro­viding protection and patronage to criminals. The Jhang police confronted such zamindars and businessmen with solid evidence of their involvement with criminal elements. They were defensive and promised to help law in­stead of lawlessness. Rana Wasey’s hard work, analytical approach, deep insight and bold attacks on the previously inaccessible hideouts of criminals were now bearing fruit. The dare-devils, who had been earlier deriding the incompe­tence of the police, were now facing a determined challenge.
Unfortunately, Rana Wasey suddenly fell seriously ill. We could not af­ford to relax the mounting pressure. I and Pervez Masud, Chief Secretary, selected Rana Muhammad Nawaz, another very competent and courageous officer, as SP Jhang. Rana Nawaz carried on the crusade of isolating the criminals from their religious and political patrons and picking them up one by one. They and their patrons became increasingly desperate as the police continued to close in. Some of them filed writ petitions in the Lahore High Court, exposing their vulnerability. The desperadoes, who used to be certain that the police could neither penetrate their network nor touch them, had been demoralized by the successful captures of some of them and now they were on the retreat.

Reaping the whirlwind. At that stage, the senior most religious leaders from both sides complained many times to me of police “high-handedness.” I confronted them with facts and urged them to disassociate themselves from criminals. I told them that they were playing with fire. Those very criminals would not hesitate in killing any of them if it suited their nefarious purposes. Even their own parents could not rely upon the criminals.
I had no specific information about any threat to sectarian leaders but they thought that I had been able to read what was in their minds. They told me separately that every one of them was under that kind of threat from the criminals! The sectarian leaders had themselves become hostages to the very despera­does whom they had been using for their purposes earlier. Every­body was caught up in the web of criminality.

The beguiled religious leaders of both sects requested me (separately, of course) to save them from the situation in which they had landed themselves. Ch. Wajid Ali, MPA, came to their help on my initiative and advice. He held a series of meetings with the leaders of both Sipah-i-Sahaba and Tehrik-i-Ni­faz-i-Fiqa-i-Ja’faria and brought them to a better understanding. (Each side secretly helped the police in tracing and arresting the desperadoes of the other side.) Ch. Wajid then arranged meet­ings of the leaders of both sects with the Chief Minister and the Prime Minister. They were moving towards the ultimate sectarian peace and harmony.
The police, meanwhile, was chasing the criminals, who were now com­paratively more isolated and exposed. Salim Fauji, their daring leader, was killed in a splendid police encounter. The murderers of the Jail Superinten­dent, Jhang, were arrested. Three most dangerous killers ran away from Jhang in disguise but could not escape the ever-vigilant eye of the Sargodha police. They were arrested and sent to Jhang to meet their nemesis in accor­dance with the law. Thanks to the hard work of imaginative, intelligent and bold officers like Rana Wasey and Rana Muhammad Nawaz, Jhang was no more under siege.
A big function was arranged in Jhang in honour of the policemen who had restored normal life to the city. The people gener­ously praised the val­our and skill of police. Love and admiration, through moving poetry, was showered on the gallant officers who had laid down their lives for the peace of Jhang. Nusrat Fateh Ali performed to the ecstatic crowd in the vast sta­dium from early evening into early morning, in celebra­tion of the blissful peace that had descended on the city of Heer and Ranjha.

Maulvis burn copies of Qur’an. Some religious elements, whom peace did not suit, went berserk. In Chiniot and Faisalabad, the police arrested the most perfidious criminals who had set on fire copies of the Holy Qur’an. A known and apparently well-respected religious group backed them. Very venerable ulema approached Mirza Muhammad Ali, DIG Faisalabad, to hush up the matter. Most people of the area, however, did come to know that copies of the Holy Qur’an had been burnt to involve the rivals in cases and to create disturbances throughout the country. The mischievous elements thought it would restore their importance. They were not play­ing to the tune of any foreign forces but to their own avarice and wickedness.
It was importance they were seeking and I was willing to give them a great deal of it. At the same time, I wanted them to work in a positive man­ner for the welfare of the society. I issued instructions to all officers to invite all venerable ulema, give them due importance and request them to motivate the people to join a jihad against crime and evil, as enjoined by the Holy Qur’an. In this way, their energies would be channelized in the right direction and they would refrain from causing any new mischief to gain importance.