[mdUzAMbG]

Speech begins here:

“Respected Elders and dear brothers, I know that you are eager to know what happened at Lal Masjid and that you are sad and frustrated at this bloody game. Whole of Pakistan is frustrated.

The details are more or less in front of you; via newspapers, radio and televisions. But we have one complaint with the media that they did not elaborate on the Truth (of what happened) in the manner that Truth should be elaborated. They are not clarifying what is obvious. They are leaving doubts, and the media has adopted a hostile attitude. Hostile attitude towards ulema and religious circles such as adopted towards an enemy nation. This is a worrisome situation.

We can only complain of this situation to Allah (SWT). We are without power, army and weapons; and to use arms against your own government is not permissible either. In this situation, except that we repent for our sins to Allah, this is the first step, because all the problems that come upon us are the fruit of our own doings. In our own Pakistan the widespread disobedience to Allah that is prevalent, from the government offices to the lower echelon. In this situation no matter which punishments befall us are not unexpected. We had rainstorm and killer winds. Half the country was being destroyed by them but this second problem arose.

I am repeating again that Prophet (SAW) foretold of these fitnah. That there will be a time that there will be fitnah after fitnah, one after the other, and the next one bigger than the previous. On 12th May, a blood game was played, of innocent blood. Whole world watched, TV broadcasted it, everyone watched. The killers’ faces were even shown . None of them were ever caught. As though it wasn’t a crime.

Background and the demands of Lal Masjid clerics

The people of Lal masjid made good demands. They are requirements of our emaan and religion. But they method they chose to pursue them was against the methods of the elders and the scholars. Everyone tried to tell me that. But what was their crime? What was the wrong method they adopted?

They captured a children’s library. That was wrong. They had captured a woman who ran a brothel. This capture was wrong. To complain against that brothel and to strive for its closure, using permitted and lawful methods, was absolutely correct. But they say that we, the people of the neighborhood, used to take complaints to the authorities but they were not stopping the brothel and it was running. The people of the neighborhood were worried, the decent people were worried. Many men used to come there in the night to commit Zina. One girl came and told her tale that she was deceived in being taken there and then forcibly she was molested, her photos were taken and she was blackmailed that if she told her parents these photos will be published. She was continuously blackmailed and called up again and again to commit Zina. She was helpless. She took her plea to Jamia faridiya/Jamia Hafsah.


But despite all this we say that their act of capturing Aunty Shamim was wrong. This was not their job. If the government wasn’t capturing her they should have gone to the newspapers etc. But this job was beyond your responsibilities. This would have spread fitnah, started fighting and the government would be reared to adopt a harsh tone; and the people whose hands the government is in you all know. As a result the blood that would have been shed was shed.

Illegal actions of the Lal Masjid clerics

So their mistake was that they called Aunty Shamim and made her repent and confess; then sent her back. Not one slap, not one cane, not one needle pinched into her, not one thorn inserted into her body.

Second thing they did (was bout) that the massage center, co-massage center, and who does the massage on entire body? Chinese women. Who gets the massage? Muslim men of Islamabad…while naked. This is the massage. The center was there. So this was against the law, the constitution of Pakistan, against our religious values; it was a crime from every angle. Those who gave a license to this center they had also committed a crime. But their (Lal masjid people) crime was that they captured the Chinese women, clad them in burqa and then returned them. This was a mistake. So how many mistakes?

Police arrested their men, they arrested some policemen. This was fourth mistake. The mistake of the police aside, but this was their fourth mistake. How many mistakes? They brought Aunty Shamim without torture they returned her. Brought Chinese women from the massage center and returned them without physical abuse. Police arrested their students; they arrested their students (policemen) so their students would be released. How many crimes? Three. Fourth crime was that they captured the library. These four were crimes, we admit. We are not going to make an explanation. We kept telling them that you are doing wrong. You don’t have a right to do this. Government within a government, federation within a federation, taking the law into your hands, is not permitted in Sharia.

Did the Wafaq-ul-Madaris and Ulema play their role?

What is interesting, this is good so that this matter is clarified. The world is saying today, our writers and columnists are also saying and the journalists too ‘look the madrasahs got maligned, the image sent to the world about them, are madrasahs like this? They spread such anarchy, they stock arms, they are oppressive, they are violence-mongers, and they are extreme separatists ’. A TV person asked me, I replied I am astonished you are saying this. Do you know this or not? That these five points (mistakes) of jamia hafsah were called wrong by all or not? The madrasahs registered with Wifaq-ul-madaris, in thousands, it was the most prominent among them. There were about 10,000 male and female students in jamia hafsah and its branches. Almost. But wifaq-ul-madaris, just because of this reason, removed them from the board, because wifaq-ul-madaris does not agree with this anarchy. It does not support such separatism; does not condone this violence. And the affiliation got cancelled. The students kept applying and calling. Teachers kept applying and their groups kept visiting us that please save one year of our students from being wasted, but we said no.

The operation was at jamia hafsah, but since the operation was being done by maulana Abdul Aziz and he was the head of this (jamia faridiya) as well, so we also cancelled the affiliation of jamia faridiya and refused to include their students in the annual examination. Wifaq ul madaris published their announcement repeatedly, and all this that I am telling you, was explained in it.

So is this not proof that Wifaq ul madaris does not permit any of its madrasahs to condone violence and extremism. Not just making it impermissible it does not even tolerate such madrasahs where there is terrorism, extremism, violence or where law is taken into their own hands. Then not just wifaq ul madaris but all the ulema of the country and all scholars of thought refuted these wrong methods of jamia hafsah heads and called it wrong. Is this not proof that all madrasahs and all ulema are against extremism, violence, anarchy and separatism? This should have been the message sent to the whole world regarding this incident that all ulema and madaris believe the way of extremism and violence to be wrong, and consider it so wrong that they separated their old mates from themselves because they did not agree to these aforementioned beliefs of ours. You people are understanding or not?

Then those TV personnel said you are saying something very important and I said then convey this message of ours. Convey it to the world.

The Government policy towards the demands of Lal Masjid clerics

But what our government did was that it did not act on even one demand of the Lal masjid clerics. Till now people of Pakistan are waiting that who were the people in office who had for so many years supported Aunty Shamim’s brothel. Who had permitted that brothel? Which people went there for Zina? They all are innocent. They are faultless. They did not commit any crime. The crime was committed by those who brought Aunty Shamim peacefully, had her repent and then sent her back. Tell me whose crime is bigger? Brothel owners or the people of jamia hafsah? Crime was on both sides. But the crime of the brothel owners was greater than the crime of the people of jamia hafsah.

Mosques were martyred in Islamabad, in capital of Islamic republic of Pakistan…the Houses of Allah (SWT) were martyred. From here the people of Jamia Hafsah started their movement. The method of our government is that until one stands up to them with sticks and shoes and until stones are not thrown at them and until the way of anarchy is not adopted they are not ready to listen to any demand. This is the methodology of the government. If this persists then there can never be peace in this country.

You do not listen to us in civilized conversation. Do not accept proofs . Do not pay least attention to what Qur’an and Sunnat say. Not ready to listen to what constitution and law says. But they will remain adamant on anti-Islamic policies. So what will be the result? The result will be that the people will spring into action. The emotional and arduous will stand up. They will take the law into their hand. Then they will neither listen to us nor you. Hence this is what happened in Jamia Hafsah.

Mosques were martyred. People protested and talked, the ulema did, but they (government) did not take the slight notice. So the people of jamia hafsah said you martyred the House of our Allah, we capture your library. Not martyr (destroy) it, capture it. This was wrong. No, this was right, the method was incorrect. Should not have captured it. The ulema went and advised them as well as the elders and people from wifaq. But they said that you tell us that these government leaders are like this that without harshness they do not listen. Acceptance is something for after, they are not even ready to listen. Tell us how (else) we do it?

We said you take help in patience and make dua to Allah (SWT) and do not deviate from the path of the law. But they were not ready to accept this. So how many crimes were there? Four crimes: brought Aunty Shamim peacefully and returned her peacefully, brought Chinese women peacefully and returned her peacefully, policemen were captured and kept peacefully and were also served during their capture, captured children’s library (and) did not do any damage or carried out any violence inside (and) did not hurt anyone. In all these actions not even one person was hurt by even a thorn. Not one slap. The whole world made the noise of ‘Sharia with canes, sharia with canes’ but give even one example when the students used even one cane on anyone. These were just for show, that these sticks were taken by the female students. Such noise on this.

On this crime more than 300 hundred, hundreds of students were killed here.

Say how is this justice?

And on 12th may a blood game was played. 40, or more than that, people were killed. The killers were seen by the world. The TV showed it and till today not one murderer has been arrested.

They say that the writ of the government was challenged, by the people of jamia hafsah. So didn’t the murderers of 40 people not challenge your writ? Here you did not consider the respect and prestige of your ‘writ’? But since those 40 killed were poor helpless people and their killers backed by non-Pakistani agencies so you did not feel any mercy for those 40 people nor did you worry about your writ.

Today your writ is being challenged by NATO forces, inside Pakistani soil, they are bombing innocent Muslims from Afghanistan. How many Pakistani Muslims have been martyred by them till now? Bombed from aero planes even.

Over there you do not worry about your writ, that your writ is being challenged by someone? It is because you consider them your overlords. You have made them your sovereign. You are protecting their writ. You do not feel the need to protect your honor there. You do not see the disrespect of your own law over there.

On the helpless your bravery works. On the innocent, the women, children, the disarmed. That Pakistani force that, with the Grace of Allah (SWT), showed the merit of their strength, ability, bravery, sacrifice, and emaan in the jihad of 1965 and Alhamdulillah the opinion even today is that on the whole our army is brimming with emaan and among the best armies of the world.

This army has been nurtured and supported by the people of Pakistan by suffering financially and paying the taxes. It is our trust. It is our earning. It is our power , the protector of our borders, we are proud of it, but you are using our superb army in these cowardly deeds. This superb army that our nation prepared for the enemies of Islam , the army that was created for the protection of Pakistan, today you are endeavoring to make this army act on the orders of the enemy. Today your bravery does not work in Kashmir; you brought the army back from kargil, nor does your bravery work in defending our western borders from NATO.

Your bravery works on the madrasah of bajaur; on killing the students there. Your bravery works on madrasah of jamia hafsah, on the male and female students. These are your cowardly deeds and you say that peace and law and order should be maintained. Every way to usurp the law and order has been adopted by you and then you tell us that ‘ulema must play their role’. The ulema went (to jamia hafsah) to play their role (in) Islamabad. We went. You gentlemen must have read it in the newspapers.

The negotiations and the peace agreement

All deals were decided. First we talked to Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, he said I will deliver your formula, he understood it and said he will deliver the formula to the upper echelons. At night Ejaz ul Haq arrived and we placed the matter before him and after some discussion he also accepted it that this formula is applicable and the government’s writ will be preserved , respect of law will be maintained , blood will be prevented from being shed and the matter will be over. But he did not make a promise and said that I will arrange a meeting for you with the Prime Minister.

So I asked Ejaz ul Haq that whether our PM was in the position to make a decision; because the people knew in which position our PM was. He said he is 100%. That is what he said and that he was 100% in position to make a decision. So we said let us meet. We met. The formula was placed there even and he explained some of his difficulties , which were also told by Ejaz ul Haq, and its solution was also decided. It was said that this should be implemented now.

What was decided was that Abdur rasheed Ghazi, he had told us daily on the phone repeatedly that I will not allow myself to be arrested, will lay down my life but not be arrested willingly. Perhaps the reason for it was how Maulana Abdul Aziz sahib was arrested and humiliated on TV and how the arrested students were stripped of their upper body clothing, blindfolded and shown in humiliation on TV, that he decided maybe that an honorable death was better than a disgraced life. So he told me clearly and repeatedly that I am not ready to be arrested willingly, I will lay down my life but not be arrested willingly. But I am ready to accept that me, my wife and kids, my personal belongings be taken to my village, I leave Jamia Hafsah too and Jamia Faridiya also. I leave Lal Masjid, the children library and all the weapons I shall surrender. Let me go to my home. However I will give the two Jamia in the administration of Wifaq ul madaris so that they are not damaged by the government. Masjid will be taken care of by the Auqaaf and run it.

So this deal, was agreed verbally, and PM gave the green signal on its implementation. This is after dhuhr, before asr.

After this for its implementation, Chaudhry Shujaat, Ejaz ul Haq, Mr. Durrani (minister of broadcasting), Mr. Tariq Azeem (wazeer e mumlikat) and our delegation went there in a caravan of cars. That prohibited area was opened for us but when we reached Lal Masjid we had to walk to reach it, or we could have gone by these cars. Then a senior ranger’s officer, or the most senior one I do not know, he stopped us from going further and said do not go further. He said that to the Ministers and also to Chaudhry Shujaat Hussein. His behavior was such as though he did not know were signing an agreement. He was not concerned with this agreement, he just said you cannot go further.

“Why couldn’t we go ahead?”

“Sir there is risk, there is risk”

“What is the risk?”

“We fear they will take you hostage”

So some of the scholars who were from Karachi and accompanying us said we will take that risk. We are hopeful they will not take us hostage. They are our brothers. But even if they did take us hostage we are ready to take this risk and we will go and talk to them, and we will tell them all these things.

But they said no, this will not happen. Then some of our delegates also expressed this concern. We told everyone that if you wish to go back on your own responsibility then you may do so. But some of our delegates came to us quietly and said there was danger of one thing: there are rangers everywhere. We believe strongly that these rangers will kill our men who are going inside so that the blame falls on Abdur rasheed Ghazi.

So it was deiced among us and Chaudhry Shujaat etc. in a house nearby taken over by the rangers and we wrote an agreement and the implementation and details were agreed according to the guidelines already decided in the meeting earlier with the PM; after discussions with the Ministers. Maulana Zahid ur raashdee , Tariq Azeem, both wrote the agreement document. Every word was pondered upon and discussed. Wherever anyone had concerns they were addressed. An envoy from Abdur rasheed Ghazi also came and through him we also talked continuously with Abdur rasheed Ghazi on telephone. His battery was getting finished so a set was sent to him so that the discussion could be continued.

He also agreed to the prepared manifesto. However one thing he kept insisting upon was that he kept asking me to make them accept one demand of his that they should go inside the mosque along with the media and the ministers so that I can show them the weapons inside, that which weapons I possess. I am certain that they will kill me then they will carry out this business, or if I am taken to my village they will do their business either way: they will bring weapons and place them inside and put the blame on me that he had amassed weapons. That is my request and I beg you to bring them inside so I can show them what weapons we have.

But there was nowhere to go, neither the media could go inside, nor the ministers nor us. The agreement was done, everything was settled and we also expressed our joy and Ejaz ul Haq said that if Allah (SWT) decrees the peace deal today I will go to umrah the next day. We are worried for a week our worries will finish.

The Presidency’s amendment

The time for signatures arrived. So these gentlemen went downstairs. It was a small house of 2-stories and we were in a room upstairs where the manuscript was being written and our delegates were downstairs and these gentlemen, whether they talked to the presidency or not I do not know, said we have to go to Presidency now to get permission from President.

I was amazed that the PM, in full gathering had made the decision, and according to that decision this manuscript was written with the collaboration between our delegates and the Ministers. It was done in the presence of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain whom we all respect, he is an elder.

So why the need to go and ask permission from Presidency when the PM…he had told us one thing in the meeting that we have also discussed this with President Musharraf; which means from bottom to the top everything was agreed upon. Abdur rasheed Ghazi was also prepared to accept it. Now we had started saying that the students must be hungry so he asked Ejaz ul Haq that food must be prepared for them.

What was agreed was that four of us (the delegates) and four ministers would take control of the students (male and female) and arrange for them to be returned to their families. This committee of eight would take the students to a safe place and if there is any court case we could deal with that later. Those upon whom there would be no court case would be set free. However it was decided that those convicted of crimes before Lal Masjid would not be set free but the rest would be set free.

This all was decided.

Then these people said they had to go so we let them, and they pleaded they would return in half an hour. We knew they would reach presidency in half an hour so when will they return? Summary is that after all this hard work, the entire day we could not rest, and the night before too, and now this deadlock had materialized. We feared that when they went to Presidency there was something amiss.

Anyway, we waited for two, two and a half hours and it rang midnight. We feared something else was going to happen there so when the gentlemen returned from there they were an entirely different persona. They had brought back a few points written on a page and the summary of it was, the words were pretty, just like the words are pretty of the deceivers, and the summary was that all the facilities that were being provided to Abdur rasheed Ghazi, all of them were being denied.

For example it was written on that paper, read by Tariq Azeem that the first point is that Abdur rasheed Ghazi along with his supporters would come out, Abdur Rasheed Ghazi along with his family and belongings would be held in a house. We asked which house? He has already said I will not accept any house-arrest. I will lay down my life but not accept this. We had agreed that he would be kept in his house in his village. We insisted that according to the agreement he would be held in a particular house i.e. in his village and we asked him which house they were aiming for and they said it would be just a house. To which we replied that agreement said his house in his village to which they said this was not possible. No word can be altered from this page. We have brought a final decision.

So I asked them to write on it that he would be held in his own house and I took the pen and wrote it quickly on that paper. Added the words ‘his’ to it. So as these gentlemen were saying they would publish the manuscript so my writing could be matched on both documents; that they did not write it, I wrote it.

But they said it was useless to edit it as the actual document was at Presidency. It cannot be altered. Tariq Azeem told me quietly that we have been given half an hour you have to either get a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. Then said fifteen minutes have passed. So I said the agreement which was accepted by Abdur rasheed Ghazi is no more and this is a new matter brought before us and we are not responsible for it. Abdur Rasheed Ghazi’s envoy is here show him the new manuscript and if he approves and gets it approved from Abdur rasheed ghazi then that is fine and good.

We were discussing this that a commander of the rangers came into the small room where we eight, the four ulema and the four ministers were seated. He kept looking at us and then at the watch, as though he was indicating for us to leave. He was waiting for us to leave. So we decided among ourselves that our stay here was fruitless and their intentions are wicked and we should leave.

So as we were heading towards the door another officer asked us ‘are you leaving?’ and I replied ‘our work is finished’. So he immediately telephoned someone and said ‘but they are leaving’. Anyhow we got in our car and came back to the hotel, it was 2:30 AM…Also this was the image portrayed in TV that they went where the government had arranged for their stay. No government had arranged our stay. We had made our own arrangements, went on our own money and responsibility, went there as we considered it our duty to broker peace.

Anyway we discussed back at our hotel and decided that right now…TV people kept calling us all the time, so we shut off our mobile phones. So that no TV reporter could contact us in a situation which was not clear because there was a chance of one thing to happen, a tiny ray of hope, and it was that Abdur rasheed Ghazi’s envoy was there with the ministers and he was talking to Abdur rasheed Ghazi. Abdur rasheed Ghazi as far as we know of latest happenings had rejected that new proposal. He had said I would give up my life, this is deception and I cannot accept. We had returned after that.

But there was that slim chance till the end that Abdur rasheed Ghazi with the discussion between his envoy and ministers might accept something. Maybe the government people might accept something of his demands. So we shut down our mobiles because if we announced at this point that the negotiations had failed then this small glimmer of hope could be damaged. We shut down our mobiles. We decided, (and) we wrote down a statement that no one would make individual announcements of this failed negotiation. Everyone’s mobiles were shut.

The Truth and the Operation

What was decided, it was time for Fajr, and after we prayed Fajr we decided we should sleep. During this I found out that the operation had started there. That there was tremendous bombing as when Muslim forces attack a non-Muslim enemy country such was the bombing, shelling and firing. Destruction was rampant. When we opened the TV the situation was totally different where opinions and analysis were dished out that ‘what happened’, ‘a little while ago it was heard that negotiations were successful, what suddenly happened’. Everyone was giving their opinions as I was watching the TV.

So we decided that we will do a press conference in the afternoon to announce what had happened. But I wondered that entire country was drowned in confusion. So I switched ON my mobile. Geo TV called me immediately and they asked me ‘what had happened? The operation has started’.

I told him everything.

This was 5 in the morning. Immediately they ran the reel of it and started to show what was happening. At 6 am, after some sleepless nights I finally laid down. At 8 I woke up and someone was cupping my feet. Hamid Mir stood there. He said all the ministers are lying please tell what happened. He had brought a camera along.

I told him everything and it was also recorded and said I would run it within 45 minutes but it was broadcast in the evening. We had had our press conference before that.

This is the entire story. I was asked by a TV channel personnel that upon whom do you place the blame for this? I said ‘on President Pervez. May Allah give him guidance’”

End of Speech.