Fast Take
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Abdul Aziz Ghazi, a cleric from Islamabad’s Lal Masjid, criticized the Pakistani authorities, calling it extra oppressive than India. He said {that a} conflict with India would not be Islamic.
Islamabad:
A Pakistani cleric has launched a scathing assault on his personal authorities and has delcared that any conflict with India can be unislamic, in a video that has been extensively circulated. Within the video, Abdul Aziz Ghazi, a controversial cleric of Islamabad’s Lal Masjid, criticises the Pakistani authorities, calling it a “merciless, ineffective system”.
In a video going viral on social media, Abdul Aziz Ghazi could be heard asking his viewers whether or not they would stand with Pakistan within the occasion of a conflict with India. He query is met with an surprising silence. Noting the dearth of response from the gang, the cleric commented, “There are only a few [hands]. This implies many are enlightened now. The matter is, conflict between Pakistan and India is just not an Islamic conflict.”
Abdul Aziz Ghazi goes on to denounce the Pakistan army, accusing it of widespread repression, claiming authorities in Pakistan have grown extra oppressive- a daring and controversial take for somebody related to Lal Masjid, a spot as soon as synonymous with radical calls.
لال مسجد کے مولانا عبدالعزیز غازی کا خطاب سنئیے جس میں وہ کہتے ہیں کہ پاکستان کی لڑائی قومیت کی لڑائی ہے اسلام کی نہیں اور پاکستان میں بھارت سے زیادہ ظلم ہے وغیرہ وغیرہ۔ ریاست کے وہ کارندے غور سے سُنیں جو ان حضرات کی سرپرستی کرتے ہیں اور سیکولر پاکستانیوں کو خطرہ سمجھتے ہیں۔ pic.twitter.com/l9Or4OJWHl
— Husain Haqqani (@husainhaqqani) May 4, 2025
“The system in Pakistan at the moment is that of disbelief (kufr), a tyrannical system. It’s worse than that of India. There is not as a lot oppression in India as there may be in Pakistan,” he stated.
Referring to the siege of Lal Masjid in 2007, Abdul Aziz Ghazi stated, “Did the Lal Masjid tragedy occur in India? Does India bomb its personal residents? Are folks disappearing in India like they’re in Pakistan?”
The cleric additionally cited atrocities in Waziristan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and accused the Pakistan authorities of bombing its personal folks.
“What occurred in Waziristan and throughout Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – these are atrocities…The state bombed its personal residents. Have such atrocities occurred in India? Have their fighter jets bombed their folks the best way ours have? Are so many individuals reported lacking in India? Right here, individuals are exhausted from staging protests seeking their family members. Right here, clerics are lacking, journalists are lacking, Tehreek-e-Insaf members are lacking.”
The video was reportedly recorded at Lal Masjid on Could 2, has sparked outrage on Pakistani social media. It was additionally shared by Husain Haqqani, the previous Pakistan ambassador to the US, who criticised the cleric for his views.
Historical past Of Lal Masjid
The mosque was established in 1965, shortly after Pakistan’s capital was shifted from Karachi to Islamabad. Quickly, it turned a centre for radicalising folks towards India, with its chief cleric creating a detailed relationship with Pakistan’s intelligence and safety equipment.
Nevertheless, by 2006, when the Lal Masjid was headed by brothers Abdul Aziz and Abdul Rashid, it began brazenly difficult the Pakistani authorities by advocating the imposition of Sharia regulation throughout Pakistan.
Because the scenario escalated, the then-Pakistani authorities, led by former President Pervez Musharraf, began seeing the mosque as a direct problem to state authority. In 2007, the federal government finally launched a army, referred to as Operation Dawn, geared toward quelling the rising menace emanating from the mosque.
As per official figures, the operation resulted in 154 deaths, whereas round 50 folks have been arrested. It additionally prompted pro-Taliban rebels alongside the Afghanistan border to nullify a 10-month-old peace settlement with the Pakistani authorities, resulting in violence that resulted in additional than 3,000 casualties in 2008.