Pro-Deobandi PMLN Punjab govt launches crackdown on Shia scholars

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN)’s provincial government in Punjab has launched a crackdown on Shia Muslim scholars and religious orators in what appeared to please their Deobandi-takfiri allies mainly the banned Deobandi terrorist outfit Sipah-e-Sahaba/ASWJ of Ahmed Ludhianvi.

Maulana Anwar Ali is a well-known religious speaker who was whisked away from his house in Garh Maharaja area of District Jhang. Local police took him into illegal custody for apprehension of breach in peace. Co-founder of banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Malik Ishaq, a deputy of ASWJ’s Ludhianvi and Ludhianvi himself are infamous for their terrorist activities, fanaticism and hate-speeches and provocative rallies but they are free because of their alliance with the ruling PMLN.

Raids were conducted in Rawalpindi, Lahore, Jhang, Dera Ghazi Khan, Layya and other parts of Punjab province where respected and peaceful moderate Shia scholars and religious speakers were taken into custody. Punjab Police targeted those scholars who are affiliated with the Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen.

Shia parties and leaders have condemned the crackdown on pro-peace and law-abiding Shia scholars and orators. They demanded public hanging of the Deobandi takfiri ASWJ’s terrorists and their abettors who the biased government respect as “religious scholars.”