Maulana Abdul Aziz announces to rebuild Jamia Hafsa in Islamabad

Maulana Abdul Aziz announces to rebuild Jamia Hafsa in Islamabad

It smells that the capital will likely once again hit by the Lal Masjid controversy as Maulana Abdul Aziz, the hothead chief cleric of the mosque, announced to rebuild Jamia Hafsa. The announcement of the chief cleric recalled the catastrophic memories of
fierce operation ‘Sunrise’ in the minds of the twin city residents.

Abdul Aziz launched a cleansing campaign on Friday, in which a large number of students participated, aiming to prepare the ground to lay the foundation-stone of the seminary by next week.

In defiance of the resistance shown by the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), the chief cleric of Lal Masjid is vowed to rebuild the seminary that ignited a plenty of controversies, back in 2007.

Abdul Aziz observed, “We are going to do it on our own, as the city administration is reluctant to reconstruct the seminary despite the mosque administration possesses court’s orders in this regard”.

It is worth mentioning here that the previous foundation stone of Jamia Hafsa was laid down by Abdul Aziz’s father Maulana Abdullah, back in 1992.

However, the oldest mosque and seminary become contentious, in April 2007, when Abdul Aziz attempted to establish a state within a state. He announced that a ‘Qazi Court’ comprised of 10 Lal Masjid clerics will thereafter impose Shriat over the territory
comes under its jurisdiction.

In many incidents on part of the seminary students and administration of the mosque led to operation ‘Sunrise’ in which uncounted people lost their lives and Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa were completely shattered.

The military action started after the students of the seminary occupied an adjacent library and refused to accept the writ of the government. The abduction of Chinese nationals, policemen and alleged brothel owners were few other reasons behind the army’s
action.

In an inglorious move, Maulana Abdul Aziz, the then chief cleric of Lal Masjid, was caught disguised in a women veil during the operation. Abdul Rasheed Ghazi, the brother of Abdul Aziz, did not surrender and lost his life along with other companions in
the final operation.

Later on, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court seeking permission to rebuild the seminary at the same place. The court accepted the viewpoint of Maulana Abdul Aziz, ordering the concerned authorities to rebuild the seminary at the same place. However,
the ICT is reluctant in permitting to do so.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Dec 17 2011. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry