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India-Pakistan

Driver in Karachi shot by employer in confrontation over alleged rape of maid's daughter: police

2019-03-24

[DAWN] A man working as a driver for a prominent political family of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... was shot and maimed by his employer in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... on Saturday over allegations of raping the minor daughter of a domestic helper, according to police. Gizri Station House Officer Khan Mohammed Bhatti told Dawn that the 20-year-old driver, Mohammed Irfan, was shot at and maimed inside the Defence Housing Authority residence where he worked. The officer said that an initial probe revealed that the maimed man had allegedly raped the teenage daughter of the family’s maid inside the home two days ago. The mother had complained to her employer, who then called the driver to question him. He stated his innocence and claimed that it was a false accusation against him. "The owner of the house was not satisfied with his response, and in order to frighten him, resorted to firing a shot and the bullet hit the driver," said the officer, sharing the initial findings of the case. The driver was taken to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) where he was found to be out of danger, according to Dr Seemin Jamali, executive director of the hospital. The bullet struck his right thigh. Later on Saturday night, SHO Bhatti told Dawn that the police have registered a rape case against the injured driver on the complaint of the victim's mother. The officer said the girl is around 13-14 years old. The police will get a medical examination done from the hospital on Sunday, he added.

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Britain

Britain: Beheading plot ringleader Parviz Khan jailed for life

2008-02-18

... or 14 years, or whatever a lenient judge figures is a good, round number. Muslim fanatic Parviz Khan, who plotted to kidnap and kill a British Muslim soldier, has been jailed for life and told he will serve a minimum of 14 years. Khan, 37, of Alum Rock, Birmingham, admitted to planning to lure the soldier off the streets with the promise of drugs and film his beheading. He also pleaded guilty at Leicester Crown Court via video link from prison to supplying equipment to terrorists in Pakistan and two counts of being in possession of a record or document likely to be of use to a terrorist. Opening the case against Khan last week, prosecutor Nigel Rumfitt QC revealed Khan was recorded by a listening device at his home as he taught his five-year-old son how to carry out a beheading. "My son, Sesame Street is the tool of Satan!" Mr Rumfitt told the court Khan was at the hub of a terrorist cell based in Birmingham which had organised four shipments of equipment to terrorists based in Pakistan but operating against coalition forces in Afghanistan. Mr Rumfitt said of Khan: "He was enraged by the notion that there are Muslim soldiers in the British Army. "As your Lordship knows, there are many soldiers from many countries who serve with our forces - some of them are Muslims from the Gambia in west Africa. "Khan decided to kidnap such a soldier with the help of drug dealers operating in Birmingham. He would be taken to a lock-up garage and there he would be murdered by having his head cut off like a pig. "This would be filmed - they would have the soldier's ID to prove who he was and the film would be released through Khan's terrorist network to cause panic and fear with the British armed forces and the wider public." It also emerged last week, in proceedings which could not be reported until today, that Khan wanted to burn the soldier's body and parade his head on a stick. Whoa. It's been 300 years since the last drawin' and quarterin'. A security services probe installed in Khan's home recorded him in November 2006 telling co-defendant Basiru Gassma what he intended to do. Khan was heard to say: "We give the judgment... well then cut it off like you cut a pig, man "Then you put it on a stick. Then we throw the body, burn it, send the video to the chacha (a reference to terrorist leaders in Pakistan). "This is what they call you will terrorise them, they will go crazy. They will start searching... London, Birmingham, Newcastle, where are these people?" Revealing that the soldier would be befriended before being kidnapped, Khan added: "All I say to you is set it up ... drug dealers they will go with him, one day, they do deal. "Then the next time you'll take him Broad Street, wine and dine and girl and things. After that they don't get friendly." Basiru Gassama, 30, pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to a failure to disclose information about the plot. Mohammed Irfan, 31, and Hamid Elasmar, 44, both pleaded guilty to engaging in conduct with the intention of assisting in the commission of acts of terrorism - namely helping Khan to supply the equipment. Zahoor Iqbal, 30, was found guilty by the jury at Leicester of the same charge. Amjad Mahmood, 32, was found not guilty of failing to inform the authorities about the plot.

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Britain

Sixth man cleared in plot to kill British Muslim soldier

2008-02-18

A sixth man charged over a plot to kidnap and behead a British Muslim soldier has been found not guilty. Amjab Mahmood, 32, was last week cleared by a jury at Leicester Crown Court of aiding terrorists. Amjab Mahmood has now also been cleared on a charge that he failed to report the beheading plot to policeHe has now also been cleared on a charge that he failed to report the beheading plot to police. On Friday, Zahoor Iqbal, 30, of Perry Barr, Birmingham, became the fifth man to be convicted in the case. He was found guilty of one count of helping ringleader Parvis Khan - who has already admitted four charges linked to the kidnap plot and other offences - to supply equipment to people in Pakistan for terrorist activities. As seen here. Three other men have admitted other terrorism offences. Khan, 37, admitted at the start of the trial that he plotted to have drug dealers lure a British Muslim soldier from a nightclub, bundle him into a car and behead him in a garage. He also admitted supplying equipment to terrorists on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and being in possession of two records or documents likely to be of use to a terrorist. Hamid Elasmar, 44, of Edgbaston, and Mohammed Irfan, 31, of Ward End, both pleaded guilty before the trial to helping Khan send the shipments to the sub-continent. And Basiru Gassama, 30, of Hodge Hill, admitted knowing about Khan's kidnap plot but failing to tell the authorities. Got all the way to the bottom of the article and didn't encounter a single Clive.

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Britain

Left-Islamo Tolerance for Terrorism

2007-08-01

By Chris Talbot 31 July 2007 Four 20-year-old Bradford University students and a 19-year-old school student were jailed after a trial at the Old Bailey for being found with material said to be “glorifying Islamic terrorism” on their computers. Aitzaz Zafar, Usman Malik and Awaab Iqbaal were jailed for three years each, Akbar Butt was jailed for 27 months and the school student, Mohammed Irfan Raja was given two years’ youth detention. Such is the atmosphere created by politicians and the media after the attempted terror bombings in London and Glasgow earlier this month that there was very little opposition in the media to what are police state measures—the jailing of these youths merely for downloading material readily available on the Internet Marxists are not the best source on political freedom; this alliance with Muslims who would murder atheists in their homelands, is as bizarre as is it suicidal. The case is the first successful prosecution under the Terrorism Act 2000 for possessing material useful for terrorism. Raja, at the age of 17, had run away from his home in London leaving a note to his parents saying, “if not in this [world] we will meet in [the Garden of Paradise]”. According to the prosecution, he was planning to go and fight in Afghanistan after training in Pakistan, and for that purpose he had joined the four students in Bradford. No serious evidence that this was anything more than an adolescent fantasy is reported. The 7-7 terror was anything but a fantasy. His parents talked to him over the phone and persuaded him to return home after three days. Raja was said to have been depressed and had discussed Islamic fundamentalism with the Bradford students over the Internet. His parents contacted the police and Raja apparently confessed, during several interviews, of his desire to fight “Muslim causes abroad.” He directed the police to the Bradford students who were arrested for having the extremist material on their computers. One of the students, Aitzaz Zafar, was interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Asked whether the “inflammatory jihadist material” he had downloaded was not an indication of terrorist intent, Zafar said that he was “researching into my religion—looking at all aspects of it.” He had become more “politically aware” as a student, and “research had led me to different sites and places.” The interviewer pressed him on why he had “horrific material,” including the video of a beheading. Zafar said that he had downloaded a zipped file containing more than 200 documents. “I never read all of them and in court they cherry-picked one document—and within that a paragraph.” Asked why he had a copy of the “Terrorist’s Handbook” on his computer, he said he had been in a chat room discussing the Muslim religion and politics, and it was one of the files that had been sent him—“people send you all sorts.” Reports of the trial claim that the five youths had made Internet contact with a certain British man called Imran who in one online chat had advised them how to travel unnoticed to Pakistan. Also mentioned was a “Brother Ali” in New Jersey, who had told Raja to get in touch with the Bradford students. Whether either of these men had sent them the zipped file or the “Terrorist’s Handbook” is not recorded. They were not produced as witnesses, and no explanation was given of why they were not arrested also. It is hardly a secret that such chat rooms can be used by provocateurs and the intelligence services. Anyone who can't read terror preparation in the above narrative, is brain dead. There is clearly some disquiet in establishment circles at the way democratic rights are being trampled on in such cases. David Livingstone, an associate fellow in international security at Chatham House, home of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, appeared as a witness for the defence at the trial. He told the Today programme that there was no evidence that the five had planned to instigate a terrorist attack. The prosecution could “radicalise” young Muslims “through a perceived sense of injustice,” he said. Elie Kedourie attacked RIIA dhimmism in his book, "The Chatham House Version"

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Britain

Schoolboy guilty of terrorism offences

2007-07-25

A schoolboy who ran away from home to become a Muslim martyr and three students who recruited him are facing jail after a jury found them guilty of terrorism offences. Hey! That's *not* in the Koran! Raja and three others were found guilty of possessing articles useful for terrorism after a three-month trial at the Old Bailey Mohammed Irfan Raja was supposed to be on his way to school in Essex when he ran away to join a group of radicalised students in Bradford. Raja, from Ilford, who was then 17, caught a bus to West Yorkshire as part of a plan to travel to Pakistan for terrorist training. He left his parents a note which said: "If not in this (world) we will meet in the Garden of Paradise, Inshallah [God willing]. The situation is such that you will live another 30 years, maybe 40 years. When death will befall you, maybe then you will appreciate what I have done now." A "PS" added that he was going abroad. Officers found material on their computers which included al-Qa'eda manuals, speeches by Osama bin Laden and justifications for suicide bombings Raja's distraught parents called the police in February last year. Officers found a "profusion of Islamic propaganda" on the schoolboy's computer which showed he had been talking to Bradford University students in a chatroom. Raja's family managed to contact him on his mobile phone and persuaded him to telephone them from a phone box in Manchester. His distraught mother went on a hunger strike until Raja agreed to return home. "Irfan Raja was not as firm in his purpose as he hoped he would be, and as the people in Bradford hoped he would be," said Andrew Edis QC, prosecuting. The defendants, who had spent much of the trial laughing and giggling together, looked shocked as the verdicts were announced. Yesterday Raja and three others were found guilty of possessing articles useful for terrorism after a three-month trial at the Old Bailey. He had become involved with a group of radical first-year students who would allegedly meet at a student house in Bradford. Raja had been introduced to Aitzaz Zafar, 20, from Rochdale, Lancs, over the internet by a 17-year-old student called Ali, from New Jersey, who was planning to join them. The court heard how Zafar and Akbar Butt, 19, from Southall, West London, discussed travel arrangements over the internet with a contact called "Imran" in Lahore, Pakistan. Butt used a computer in Bradford University library to plan a trip to a training camp on Pakistan's North-West Frontier. But Raja was arrested when he went home on February 26 and counter-terrorism police soon rounded up the Bradford ring, which also included Usman Ahmed Malik, 21, from Wolverhampton, West Mids. During raids on their homes officers found material on their computers which included al-Qa'eda manuals, speeches by Osama bin Laden and justifications for suicide bombings. The other members of the gang denied plotting to train for jihad. The defendants, who had spent much of the trial laughing and giggling together at the stupid kufrs, looked shocked as the verdicts were announced. Because it's all a great Islamic spree of fun and holiness they were planning. Jurors are still deliberating over a charge faced by a fourth Bradford university student Awaab Iqbal, 19.

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Britain

Student 'library of hate aimed to stir holy war'

2007-04-26

Five students gathered a "shocking" computer library of terrorist propaganda to encourage young people to give up their lives for Muslim holy war, a court has heard. Bradford University students Aitzaz Zafar, 18, Awaab Iqbal, 19, Usman Malik, 19, and Akbar Butt, 20, and sixth-form pupil Mohammed Irfan Raja, 18, hoped to spread their message among Muslims across the world, jurors were told. Butt even discussed holy war – or jihad – in chat forums from his computer terminal in the university library, and said he downloaded many martyrdom videos which made him "happy" because the extremists he knew in Bradford were "all talk". The five were planning to travel to terror training camps in Pakistan before going into action, the Old Bailey in London heard. They hoped to recruit impressionable young people, gathering a sinister collection of martyrdom videos, extreme Islamic literature and al-Qaida terror network instruction manuals to further their aim, it was said. Andrew Edis, prosecuting, told jurors: "The evidence will show that this group of five young men collected together a very large quantity of extreme Islamist and terrorist propaganda. It was propaganda of a kind intended to convey to Muslims everywhere this message: It is your religious duty to go to fight the jihad – jihad as physical fighting in the cause of Islam, fighting the disbelievers in order to clear the Muslim lands of any foreign occupation ... to fight and, if necessary, by dying until Muslim countries are clear of foreigners. "There is a great deal of celebration of martyrdom, the rewards of dying in the name of jihad are repeated over and over again as an incitement and religious incentive to obey a religious command of duty." Material found on the computers of the defendants allegedly encouraged young Muslims to travel to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq to fight with the Mujihadeen – warriors of the jihad. It also glorified suicide attackers including the September 11 hijackers, and called for attacks on Jewish communities and Britain, the court heard. Jurors were warned they might be alarmed by the extreme material they would need to view during the trial. Mr Edis added: "It will probably shock you in a number of ways, not necessarily because of the physical violence but because of the veneration of suicide as a weapon of war or terrorism. But this trial is not about why hatred exists or whether it is justified or not. This trial is not about whether somebody is entitled to hold strong political views. This trial is not about whether people are entitled to follow their religion in this country." "It is about an answer to this question: Did these young men accumulate and use this material as part of a process which was intended to encourage them and others to carry out terrorist acts? Were they collecting these religious instructions and motivational propagandist films, collecting them together to encourage themselves and others they may recruit into their group?" The five defendants are all charged with possessing articles likely to be useful to terrorists, which were uncovered during raids on their homes. Iqbal, a forensic science student of Grove Terrace, Bradford, and Zafar, of Bishop Street, Rochdale, both deny possessing three CDs between February 23 and March 3 2006. Iqbal alone denies possessing discs, a video recording and a hard drive. Zafar denies possession of two computer hard drives and four discs. Malik, of Laisteridge Lane, Bradford, denies possessing a document called "Raising Mujihadeen children" and "joining the caravan", and a USB drive. Butt, of no known address, denies two counts of possessing a laptop hard drive. Raja, of Ilford, London, denies two charges of possessing three CDs containing Islamic material and documents on a hard drive. The trial continues.

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Britain

'Ringleader' of UK soldier beheading plot to stand trial

2007-02-24

(AKI) - A man reportedly accused of plotting to kidnap and behead a British Muslim soldier will face trial next year, London's Old Bailey criminal court heard on Friday. Parviz Khan, 36, is accused of "intention to kidnap and kill a member of the British armed forces." The alleged plan involved copying militants' tactics in Iraq by torturing and decapitating the soldier and posted the killing to the Internet, according to media reports. Khan and four other suspects have been charged with various terrorism offences. Khan, a 36-year-old father of four appeared together with four other suspects via video link at the Old Bailey. He was one of a group of men arrested in the central English city of Birmingham in a major anti-terrorism operation last month. Khan and the other men, Mohammed Irfan, 30, Zahoor Iqbal, 29, Hamid Elasmar, 43, and Amjad Mahmood, 31, are all charged with funding terrorism and with supplying terrorists. Mahmood, is also charged with failing to disclose information which might have been of "material assistance" in preventing the kidnap plot. During Friday's 90 minute hearing the court heard that owing to the very large quantity of evidence gathered by investigators in connection with the alleged plot, a "realistic" trial date would be late next year, possibly in Birmingham.

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Britain

Sixth man nabbed in head chopping plot

2007-02-10

A sixth man was charged with a terror offence following raids in Birmingham. West Midlands police said Basiru Gassama, 29, from Birmingham, will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on Saturday. He is accused of withholding information about a potential act of terrorism. The charge, under the Terrorism Act 2000, follows the appearance of five other men in court charged with offences under anti-terrorism laws. One of the men was accused of planning to kidnap and kill a British soldier. Parviz Khan, 36, appeared amid tight security at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court in London alongside four other men. Khan, arrested in a series of raids in Birmingham on January 31, is charged with an offence under section 5(1) of the Terrorism Act 2006. He is accused between November 1 2006 and 31 January 2007 of engaging in conduct "to give effect to his intention to kidnap and kill a member of the British Armed Forces". Khan and the other four - Amjad Mahmood, Mohammed Irfan, Zahoor Iqbal and Hamid Elasmar - are all charged with two offences each. One is under section 5(1) of the Terrorism Act 2006 and the other under section 17 the Terrorism Act 2000. The first alleges that between March 30 2006 and January 31 2007 they engaged in conduct to give effect to an intention to supply equipment for use in committing acts of terrorism. The second charge states that between the same dates they entered into or became concerned in a funding arrangement that they knew or had cause to suspect "may be used for the purposes of terrorism". Khan then also faces the charge alleging the kidnap plot while 31-year-old Mahmood is also accused of failing to disclose information which might have been of "material assistance" in preventing the alleged plot. All five men are now due to appear at the Old Bailey on February 23.

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Home Front: WoT

6th Man Charged in British Beheading Plot

2007-02-09

although of course, Muslim Anger™ is centered on the two that were released without being charged, not about the fact that these guys were going to kill a man by cutting his head off . . . you'd think that if they're so frikkin proud of their religion-driven actions, they'd admit to it. cowards. A sixth man has been charged under the terrorism act following last weeks raids in Birmingham. Five men appeared in court today charged with terror offences. One of the defendants, Parviz Khan, is accused of plotting to kidnap and kill a British soldier. The other four, Amjad Mahmood, Mohammed Irfan, Zahoor Iqbal and Hamid Elasmar, also face offences under the Terrorism Act. They were all arrested in anti-terror raids in Birmingham on January 31. The defendants, who are in police custody, were transferred from Coventry to City of Westminster Magistrates' Court in a police convoy. No applications for bail were made on behalf of Khan or Mahmood. The five defendants were flanked by seven security guards as they filed into the dock. Two of the men - including Khan - remained standing throughout the hearing. Four were dressed in blue sweatshirts while one wore a stripy sweatshirt and woollen hat. They listened intently throughout the hearing, which was heard before district judge Daphne Wickham.

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Home Front: WoT

Five British Beheading Plotters Face Terror Charges

2007-02-09

Plenty of British muslim accusations of "police state," on this, not so much. Five men arrested in Britain in connection with an alleged plot to kidnap and behead a Muslim soldier in an 'Iraq-style' video execution have been charged with terrorism offences, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Friday. But only one of the suspects, named as Parviz Khan, 36, was charged specifically with plotting to kill a member of the British armed forces, Sue Hemming of the counter-terrorism division of the CPS told a news conference. The other four men, aged between 31 and 43, were charged with various offences under the Terrorism Act. All are believed to be British-born Muslims of Pakistani origin. Khan is accused of 'engaging in conduct to give effect to his intention to kidnap and kill a member of the British armed forces' between November 1 last year and the time of his arrest on January 31, 2007. Three of the altogether nine men who were arrested in dawn raids in Birmingham, in the British Midlands, on January 31 have been released without charge, while another man remains in custody. THIS is what the muslim community is in a later about, not the fact that credible terror threat was in their midst The four men charged along with Khan were named as Mohammed Irfan, 30, Zahoor Iqbal, 29, Hamid Elasmar, 43, and Amjad Mahmood, 31. They were due to appear before magistrates in London later Friday. Press reports said last week that the men were being held for planning to abduct a Muslim British soldier in Britain while on home leave from duty in Afghanistan and post his execution on the internet. The intention behind the plot was to have been to put pressure on the British government to withdraw troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. so much for living in a democratic country, where the civilized use information and political campaigns to influence the government The attack had been imminent, the reports suggested. West Midlands police chief David Shaw said Friday that 4,500 items, including computers and mobile phones, had been confiscated during the search of 18 premises in Birmingham. Shaw, clearly aware of the unease the arrests have caused among Birmingham's large Muslim community, stressed Friday that the investigating authorities had received 'fantastic support' from the local community. he had to say that. even if it is true, where are the media reports, then? He blamed speculative media reporting for the 'damage' that had been done to relations between ethnic groups in the city. But one of the three men freed, Abu Bakr, said police investigators had never explained to the men why they were held and there had been 'no mention' of a kidnap plot involving a soldier. Bakr,who worked in an Islamist bookshop in Birmingham where he is also studying for a PhD in Political Islam, said the arrest would affect him 'for the rest of my life.' isn't ALL islam political these days? His charge that Britain was a 'police state for Muslims' was rejected as 'categorically wrong' by the British government Thursday, which said that if the allegation was true, Bakr would not have been released or allowed to make his remarks on BBC television. Meanwhile in London, police were holding radical Muslim Abu Izzadeen on suspicion of 'encouraging terrorism.' The 31-year-old Jamaican who converted to Islam in 1994 is held in connection with a speech he gave in Birmingham last summer. However, police stressed that his arrest in London Thursday was not connected with the case in Birmingham.

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India-Pakistan

Indian muslim town seething with anger

2006-09-09

The BBC's Zubair Ahmed visits the city of Malegaon in India a day after it was hit by bomb attacks to find residents seething with anger. "What goes around comes around," said a local police officer. The tongue-in-cheek remark was meant to be an off-the-record comment. But that just summed up the reputation of Malegaon, a dusty town of 700,000 people, two-thirds of them Muslims, in the eyes of officials, who often brand it as a hotbed of support for home-grown as well international Islamic militant organisations. Indeed its reputation was not helped when a large cache of arms and ammunition was seized from men who were born and raised here a few weeks before the Mumbai bomb blasts two months ago. The town, home to a large number of Muslim weavers, has been officially declared sensitive by the Maharashtra state police chief, P.S. Pasricha. But this is a tag vehemently resented by local Muslims. A local weaver Nayeemuddin said: "If we were volatile, there would have been retaliation by us. But we have been very peaceful, despite a heavy loss of lives." But some of them did turn violent. When the two bombs went off in the town soon after Friday prayers, they expressed their resentment by attacking policemen and their vehicles soon after the bomb blasts. ust before I reached Malegaon, I was told that many parts of the town were under a curfew. I arrived just before midnight, wondering who on earth would be awake to talk to me around that time. I also imagined the town would look deserted because of the curfew. But to my astonishment there were more people on the roads than on a normal day. Regardless of the curfew, men dressed in traditional Muslim attire were roaming the streets, wondering why their town was attacked by militants. Hundreds of men were trying to escort journalists to the scenes of bombings. Many of them sounded really shaken. Manzoor Ilahi was fuming. "Malegaon has always been accused of harbouring Islamic terrorists. Now tell me, why would we be attacked on a day which is so pious in Islam?" Dozens of people joined him in support. A man from the crowd summed up the general feelings: "The day and time were carefully chosen to maximise the casualty. It could not have been done by Islamic terrorists." Maharashtra state's deputy chief minister, R.R. Patil, in an interview with the BBC, praised the overall patience displayed by local Muslims. He also said he disapproved of the "sensitive" tag. Mr Patil, who was the first high-ranking minister to rush to Malegaon, said it was still unclear who could have triggered these bombs. But he had a view on the possible motive of the attackers: "The time and place of attack suggest the bombings were carried out to create tensions between Hindus and Muslims." However, he was unable to throw light on the possible link between the serial bomb blasts on commuter trains in Mumbai in which more than 180 people were killed and the latest bombings in Malegaon. Just a few days before the latest blasts, India's prime minister had warned a meeting of all state chief ministers that more attacks were imminent. Should Mr Patil accept a lapse on the part of his administration? His candid answer was that the attackers successfully played the game of one-upmanship. "We had made appropriate security arrangements for the graveyard, where Muslims had to visit on the night. The arrangements were to take effect from 1700. But terrorists surprised us by exploding bombs soon after Friday prayers in the early afternoon." But he added that watertight security was impossible. "Despite heavy security arrangements in New York and London, they were attacked. Yes, we have to be on our toes, but 100% security cannot be guaranteed." But residents were not impressed by the police intelligence-gathering network. Drug store owner Sheikh Rashid said the police should have enough information on militant activity because the city has been under surveillance since some local men were arrested a few months ago. Imran Ansari, meanwhile, is angry. He lost his brother and two young nephews in the bomb attacks. The trio had gone to the mosque to offer Friday prayers, but never returned. "We are looked at suspiciously by the police. But has any Hindu been killed by Muslims here, ever? Has there been any communal riot between Hindus and Muslims in recent times?" he asked. It is unfair to treat townspeople as supporters of Islamic militancy, he says. It was this nondescript town five years ago that had witnessed a large scale protest over the US invasion of Afghanistan. Police killed 12 Muslim protesters after a brief altercation with them. The Taleban government had enjoyed immense support in Malegaon. But why do they react to the attacks on Muslim countries? Mohammed Irfan, a member of a large crowd around me, answered: "If a needle is pierced in any part of your body the whole body hurts, doesn't it? The Muslims all over the world are like a human body." But does it hurt to see no Muslim country came out to condemn the latest attacks on them? "It's their problem. We do our duty... It's an obligation by Islam to support Muslims and we do our Islamic duty." And perhaps this is the mindset that worries the establishment the most.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Shiites Riot in Eastern Pakistan City

2004-10-02

SIALKOT, Pakistan Thousands of minority Shiite Muslims rampaged through an eastern Pakistan city Saturday in a riot sparked by a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque that killed 31 people. Rioters set fire to a police station and the mayor's office in Sialkot, destroyed several motorcycles and attacked a court. Firefighters rushed to the scene, while troops tried to restore order. "The army is handing the situation, but violence is still going on," said Mohammed Irfan, an official at the city's police control room. There were no immediate reports of injuries. The violence broke out after about 15,000 mourners, beating their chests and wailing, gathered for a funeral for victims of Friday's bombing at the Zainabia mosque, which also wounded more than 50 people.

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