Maulana Azad’s family alleges ISI harassment

By
fraaz
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27
505

A grandnephew of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad – a senior political leader of the Indian independence movement and an opponent of partition of India – has claimed that he was severely harassed and almost arrested for “no reason” by officials of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), during his visit to Lahore in June this year.
In an article carried by The Statesman, Firoz Bakht Ahmed, the visitor, wrote of an ordeal during his tour of Lahore with his family in June, claiming that the Pakistani government, especially the military establishment, was extremely critical of Muslims living in and loyal to India, saying as much that they were looked upon with utter hate and abhorrence.
“It’s not only Pakistani Hindus who routinely narrate horror tales. Indian Muslims are terrorized too while on visits to Pakistan as tourists as they are generally taken to be RAW agents or spies. The problem with the Pakistani administration is that it can’t tolerate Hindus and more than them, pious Muslims who profess their loyalty to India. My family and I realized this to our dismay during our recent visit as tourists to Lahore,” he wrote.
Ahmed said Pakistanis were intolerant of Muslims who swore allegiance to India.
“I implore Muslims of India never and ever to venture into Pakistan as tourists since there is no guarantee that they will return unless they are part of some government delegation. Pakistani authorities hate Indian Muslims and that is the truth,” the article said. He said his hounding started at Wagah while crossing into Pakistan.
Reporting his ordeal, Ahmed said his children had insisted going to Joy Land children’s amusement park in Lahore Cantonment during their stay at Aitchison College during the Lahore tour. “It so happened that on 9 June, 2012, the fifth day of our stay in Lahore, the children wanted to go for rides at Joy Land Park around 5pm.

While we were about to enter the park, we were asked by ISI sleuths (in civilian clothes) who had been following us right from Wagah border all these days without our knowledge, to divert our three-wheeler towards the Sarwar Road Police Station.”
Ahmed said his family was told at the police station that they had entered a “prohibited” area, despite his wife’s protest that they were only tourists and there was no notice board to ward them off.
“But the officers had sinister designs and had already readied papers to lock us up. The fact remains that even if some tourist goes to the amusement park unknowingly, he lands in the hands of the ISI only to be put behind bars indefinitely. Time and again, while grilling us, the officers kept repeating that Pakistani tourists received even worse treatment at the hands of Indian agencies, but I kept denying that,” so said Ahmed.
“Our passports, visas and other papers were picked up by the policemen” from our abode in Aitchison College, he said. “The ISI spies had plotted impeccably to snare us. Our arrest documents had been prepared and passports and other papers confiscated. We were deeply shaken.”
But Ahmed said help came through the college bursar, a retired army man. His assurance to ISI officials of the family being mere tourists was not enough, so Ahmed said he had to call the editor of a Pakistani English daily.
He and his family were released after five hours “after tendering a written apology”.
“While going back to Delhi, customs officials teamed with five ISI officers grilled us for three hours, ransacked our bags and gave our camera, our cellphones, wallets and external hard disc a thorough going-over. Even medicines and my shaving kit weren’t spared. All the while, I remained worried that something would be planted in our luggage to make a case for arresting us,” he said.
The writer said he “heaved a sigh of relief after we got out of the clutches of these ISI megalomaniacs. Having crossed over to the Indian side, the sight of Sikh customs officers came as a big relief”.

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27 COMMENTS

  1. Desi, to treat anyone like this, is unacceptable.
    Your hate has blinded you, Pakistani 's is becoming a country of hate.
    You hate Indian Muslims, you hate ahmedies, you hate Shias, you hate the moderate/liberals, you hate the Americans, you hate Hindus…..?????
    Perhaps you hate yourself also.

    • I don't hate Indians,Hindus,Ahmedi's,I live among them and I'm good friends with alot of them,perhaps you can kiss my a.s.s.Just returning the favor.I dislike anyone who talks c.r.a.p. about Pakistan.jaggu.

  3. Only terrorists and mentally deranged people would like to go to failed terror and beggar state of P0rkistan. You have proved through your actions that you have nothing but terrorism, venom of religion, fundamentalism and virus of extremism to offer to civilized world. The way you have wiped out Hindus, Christains, Ahemdiyas and treating Balochs and Sindhis, you blood thirsty Punjabis will die at the hands of India.. but before that I want you to become another Afganistan…humiliation before your annihilation…. you are on the track….

  4. It is a very bad episode on the part of the ISI,though Molana Abul Kalam Azad was against the parttition , but a lot of muslim political parties were also against the parttition, now these parties pose them selves as the heros of pakistan , just to name only two Jamaiet ulama Hind (now pakistan ) and jumat e islami………….

  5. cantonment areas are off limits to indian nationals(clearly mentioned on the visas) you're asking for trouble by violating the visa rules and then ISI is the cheif villain for questioning you? kewl story bro

  7. firiz A Bakht, grandson of Azad will have to sing this song and abuse Pakistan endlessly, to prove his loyalty to Pakistan. You will never hear a Hindu or Sikh Indian visitor to Pakistan talking like this, because he does not have to prove his loyalty.

  9. how the hell would a tourist know where the cantonment limits end or start…i bet 99 % Pakistanis wont.
    This hate and bug attitude must end on both sides. there are equally harrowing tales doing the rounds about people picked up on the Indian side.
    we go ahead and paint aman ki aasha on kids faces and then do all this too.
    its an issue not just here in Pakistan….its across the divide too…

    Its sad the family of a historic figure had to go through this ordeal…he had his own ideas…to each his own.
    i feel personally let down by the officious and unnecessary pestering they received, it should have been exactly the opposite, may we exhibit better tolerance and good sense.

  10. Most Indian Muslims are brain washed and are actually anti Pakistan. They tend to blame the creation of Pakistan for their woes. They prefer marrying Hindus and are generally only Muslims on face value. The harassment that Pakistanis get in India is far greater than what is narrated here. If a Pakistan national had entered an Indian cantonment, he would be charged for spying and arrested and beaten. Good job ISI. Referring to some other comments above: I will suffice to say to them: FO

  11. Jinnah, a non-practicing muslim, gave his vision of Pakistan. Sixty-five years down the road, it has proved to be utterly wrong. Abul Kalam Azad, a practicing muslim, warned us of the consequences of making Pakistan. Unfortunately, he proved to be prophetically farsighted. These are facts of history. Now, instead of living in a state of denial, we need to objectively analyse our situation and draw a roadmap of our future for a Pakistan which is strong, tolerant, democratic and a welfare state.

  14. Mr. Ahmad I do not agree with your opinion that Pakistani establishment hates pious Muslims from India especially those who take pride in their loyalty to India. In fact our establishment hates anyone and everyone who has the ability to think and to criticize those who are doing extreme harm to Pakistan. If history is any judge then events since 1947 speak loudly for this reality.

    • Very Good Mudassir, this way you are making us more proud to expose Pakistanis as most intolerant & abusive creatures on earth!

      Don't forget there are a millions of Dogs, political & apolitical, in our country & we all Pakistanis are ourselves Ex-Indians!

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