Part of a fresh wave of terror attacks occurring in Pakistan; the February 16 suicide bomb blast on Lal Shahbabaz Qalandar shrine in Sehwan killed at least 88, including women and children. The Islamic State in Khorasan claimed responsibility for this attack - the deadliest in Pakistan since 2014. After this incident, Defence Minister of Pakistan, Khawaja Asif at the Munich Security Conference said that Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed can pose a serious threat to the society. This statement started a serious debate on Terrorism, Islam and Militancy and more on Hafiz Saeed, his role and status and governments dramatically changing mood toward him and the causes behind them.
Lal Shahbaz Qalandar was a Sufi saint, philosopher, poet born as Syed Muhammad Usman Marwandi, in 1177 A.D. to Pir Syed Hasan Kabeeruddin, in Marwand. According to traditions, in Multan he met Baha-ud-din Zakariya of the Suhrwardiyya, Baba Fariduddin Ganjshakar of the Chishtiyya and Syed Jalaluddin Bukhari. The friendship of these four became legendary, they were known as the “Chahar Yar”. The shrine comemorate Lal Shahbaz Qalandar was built in 1356.
Qalandars, are wandering ascetic Sufi dervishes who may or may not be connected to a specific tariqat, like Lal Shahbaz. Songs honoring famous Qalandars are called Qalandri dhamaal in Pakistan and India. Dhamaal are a popular South Asian musical subgenre about Sufi saints such as Lal Shahbaz Qalandar. These songs typically incorporate qawwali styles as well as different local folk styles, such as bhangra and intense naqareh or dhol drumming. The shrine's dhamaal, or meditative dancing ceremony, which is also in center of present contention. According to Wahabi faith this is an un-Islamic ritual, which has been forbidden. The profession of faith (shahada) states, ‘There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God’, any shortcomings would render one an unbeliever. Any act or statement that indicates devotion to a being other than God is to associate another creature with God’s power, and that is tantamount to idolatry (shirk). Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab included in the category of such acts popular religious practices that made holy men into intercessors with God.
Like Dhamal, “Chilla makus” ( Which was a modification of ancient “Hath-Yog” ) “Sama” (Music) and “Raak” ( Dance) were some of the several practices which were on the targets of fanatic hardliners of Islam from quite early days of Islam, as they thought them as “Mubah”(Prohibited) in Islam. Mansoor Hallaz, and Fariduddin Attar to Sarmad, a long series of tortured. Lal Shahbabaz Qalandar , Like his contemporary, great mystic, poet and philosopher Rumi, also on the top of hit lists of that kind of religious hooligans, Hafiz Saeed, is one of the true contemporary representative of that narrow minded approach which flourish in Pakistan under patronage of government.
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed was born in a Gujjar family in Sargodha, Punjab. As told by him, his father Kamal-ud-Din, a farmer, in the autumn of 1947, along with his family started migrating from Haryana and reached Pakistan in around four months. General Zia-ul-Haq appointed Hafiz Muhammad Saeed to the Council on Islamic Ideology, and he later served as an Islamic Studies teacher at the University of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan. He was sent to Saudi Arabia in the early 1980s by the university for higher studies where he met Saudi Sheikhs who were taking part in the Soviet-Afghan war and that is the place where he deeply affected by Ahal-e Hadith and wahabi ideology. The rest of his deeds are apparently shows in a course of time.
In 1987, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, along with Abdullah Azzam, founded Markaz Dawa-Wal-Irshad, a group with roots in the Jamait Ahl-e-Hadis. This organisation spawned the jihadist group Lashkar-e-Taiba in 1990, with the help of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence officers. Pakistan detained Hafiz Muhammad Saeed. on 21 December 2001 in relation to Indian accusations of his involvement with the 13 December 2001 attack on the Lok Sabha. After the July 11, 2006 Mumbai train bombings, the provincial government of Punjab, Pakistan arrested him on 9 August 2006 and kept him under house arrest On 11 December 2008, Hafiz Muhammed Saeed was again placed under house arrest when the United Nations declared Jamaat-ud-Dawa to be an LeT front. In April 2012, the United States announced a bounty of US$10 million on Hafeez Saeed, for his role in 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. In last month Hafiz Saeed was detained under fourth schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) on January 30.
Pakistan’s first Constituent Assembly adopted the ‘Objectives Resolution’ in 1949, declaring the purpose of the state to be to enable Muslims “to order their lives in the individual and collective spheres in accordance with the teachings and requirements of Islam as set out in the Holy Quran and the Sunna.” But there is a significant question that which interpretation is appropriate? Pakistan emerged as a fragmentation process on the name of Islam, but today there is another type of fragmentation process proceeds under the fold of Islam and Hafiz saeed is the vanguard. Hafiz as a staunch supporter, practitioner and proliferators of Ahal-e-Hadith, the sect, minority in number of followers but spreading rapidly by assistance of patro-dollars and patronage of Army and government. Hafiz saeed want to implement a rigid version of sharia, which will in accordance of Ahal-e-Hadith and Wahabi ideology, which meant dragging of Pakistan thousand year back and shun all the progress in all fields in the name of purification of Islam. In Pakistan 95 percent population adhere to Islam and of total followers of Islam about 20 percent of them related to Shia Community which was declared as infidel by various wahabi and Ahl-e-Hadith clerics, so the Ahmadiyas too, which had ousted from Islam by second amendment in the constitution of 1973. There are not only tensions between Shi’a and Sunni, but there is serious strife between sunni manifold.
Hafiz saeed enjoyed a large fan following which got upset by his recent detention. Saeed headed the Jamat-ud-Dawa, (recently name changed) which operates largest chain of Madaris in Pakistan. According to a survey in Pakistan about 3.5 million young pupils enrolled in some 40 thousand madrassas, where they turned down to terror machine. Among this class who are in tattered economic condition with no secular or scientific education, Saeed acquired a messianic repute. But on other hand the willingness to flourish a pluralistic approach among followers of Islam also have in existence. Classes other than Army and clerics have great enthusiasm to a peaceful and prosperous Pakistan, totally free from terrorism and religious tensions, but persons like Hafiz Saeed, are biggest obstacle in the original Idea of Pakistan. Pakistan is a resultant of two nation theory, which has inherent belief that Pakistan became a homeland to all believers. But what happened today, to this Idea of Pakistan? The idea of Pakistan dilapidated now. The disenchantment of this myth begins with creation of Bangladesh, with Bangla nationalism, which put aside Islamic identity. And what happened in Pakistan is more astonishing. Peoples and groups are targeted because they are follow believe system which is not found appropriate by some self styled regulators of Islam. So the incidents like Sehwan growing in recent years.
On 22 June 2016, celebrated qawwal, Amjad Fareed Sabri was killed in a targeted killing in Karachi. The killing was claimed by a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban who accused Sabri of blasphemy. Since 2005, over a dozen incidents of terrorist attacks occurred in pakitan. On March 19, 2005, At least 35 people were killed and many injured when a suicide bomber attacked the shrine of Pir Rakhel Shah in the remote village of Fatehpur located in Jhal Magsi district. On May 27, 2005, Around 20 people, including a suspected suicide bomber, were killed and nearly 100 others injured in a powerful blast during a majlis at the Bari Imam shrine in Islamabad. In a similar incident on March 5, 2009 The shrine of 17th century Sufi poet Rahman Baba was bombed by militants in Peshawar. The structure of the shrine was damaged. On June 17, 2010, four persons were killed and several injured when assailants opened fire at them in Golra Sharif, on the outskirts of Islamabad. In July 1, 2010, Data Darbar in Lahore was targeted and at least 37 people were killed in the blast. In October 7, 2010, Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine was bombed in Karachi, killing at least eight people and leaving more than 60 injured. On October 25, 2010, legendary Sufi saint, Baba Farid’s shrine, in Pakpattan was bombed. In this incident at least six people were killed. Around 11 people were killed in a blast at the shrine of Akhund Panju Baba at Akbarpur-Taro Jaba in Nowshera district in a terrorist attack on March 7, 2011. Fifty people died after two suicide bombers attacked the Sakhi Sarwar shrine in Dera Ghazi Khan on April 3, 2011. On June 21, 2012, An IED blast at Punj Peer in Hazarkhwani, Peshawar, left three people dead and 22 others injured. A suicide attack on October 28, 2012 on the shrine of Kaka Sahib in Nowshera left three people dead and 25 injured. On December 11, 2012, The Taliban targeted shrines of Sufi saints Sheikh Nisa Baba and Sheikh Bahadur Baba in Khyber Agency. On June 21, 2014, a blast at the shine of Baba Nangay Shah in Islamabad left more than 60 people injured. Abdul Qadus Shah’s, shrine, who also known as Hazrat Baba, was bombed October on 15, 2014 at Peshtakhara in Peshawar. On November 13, 2016, More than 50 people were killed and 102 injured in a bombing at the shrine of Shah Noorani in Khuzdar.
While taking the responsibility, on Lal Shahbabaz dargah attack, IS Khorasan, called it a Shia gathering. To his devotees, he is not a Muslim or a Shia saint. He is a peer, who cannot be constrained by confines of religious boundaries. To the Sindhi Hindus, forming the largest religious minority in the country, he is their peer as much as he peer for Muslims. Sindhi community has a belief that Lal Shahbabaz as an incarnation of Jhoolelal. Pakistan has a worst record to protect minorities but recent trends shows that the entire Islam is under the threat by wahabism and similar ideologies. This is not mere an attack on a religious shrine, it is onslaught on Idea of Pakistan, that is the back bone of this nation, which was though tormented for years. Pakistan has taken the decision on Saeed and JUD in difficult circumstances, keeping the changing global scenario, particularly in the post-US elections and the kind of policy could affect Pakistan's policies and priorities.