The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday directed the attorney general to submit a reply on a petition seeking registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against Lal Masjid cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz for inviting the militant Islamic State (IS) group to Pakistan.
Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, while hearing a petition filed by activist Jibran Nasir, asked the attorney general to submit a reply on behalf of the Interior Ministry in response to the petition, and directed the deputy attorney general to appear in court on May 18 for the next hearing of the case.
Nasir, in his petition, maintained that Abdul Aziz supported the demands of Jamia Hafsa students who, in a video message, invited the IS group to Pakistan to avenge the deaths of Osama bin Laden and those killed in the 2007 Lal Masjid operation.
The video message released by Jamia Hafsa students, in which they invite IS chief Abu Bakar al-Baghdadi to ‘avenge’ the 2007 military raid on Lal Masjid, was termed as “waging war” against the state in a 2015 Islamabad police report sent to the Interior Ministry.
The report says the words spoken by the madressah students in the video released by Shuhada Foundation come under Sections 121/121-A 505(1)b/505(2) of Pakistan penal Code (PPC). The mentioned sections include attempt to wage war and the abettment to wage war [against the state].
Security agencies have already warned the government that due to his links with known militant groups and his anti-government rhetoric, the resurgence of Lal Masjid cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz poses a security threat to law and order situation in the capital.
Security agencies have warned the government that due to his links with known militant groups and his anti-government rhetoric, the resurgence of Abdul Aziz poses a security threat to the law and order situation in the capital.
They have also stressed the need for a check on the growing number of madrassas in Rawalpindi and Islamabad who also have overt and covert links with militant groups.
A separate report entitled ‘Activities of Maulana Abdul Aziz’, forwarded to the interior ministry by the country’s primary intelligence agency earlier this year, says that the “Lal Masjid mafia” has links with militant groups and land grabbers and is currently reorganising the Ghazi Force militant group spawned by his own followers after the Lal Masjid operation.
“Activities of Maulana Abdul Aziz and Lal Masjid administration, if not checked / contained can subsequently create [a] serious law and order situation in [the] twin cities,” the report said.
The report points out that a small all-girls seminary – the Jamia Syeda Summaya in Sector G-7/3 – is managed by the Lal Masjid administration and has already been renamed ‘Jamia Hafsa’. “They are reportedly planning to grab Al-Falah Mosque, located adjacent to this seminary, as the management of Al-Falah Mosque has resisted and filed a case against them in court.” Maulana Abdul Aziz is currently residing in the same Jamia Hafsa.
