Abdul Rashid Ghazi

Abdul Rashid (عبدالرشيد; ca. 1964 – 10 July 2007)[1] was an Islamist Pakistani fundamentalist, activist and the former Vice Chancellor of Jamia Faridia. son of Muhammad Abdullah Ghazi, and younger brother of Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi.

Abdul Rashid
عبدالرشيد
Born(1964-01-29)29 January 1964
Islamabad, Pakistan
Died10 July 2007(2007-07-10) (aged 43)
Lal Masjid, Islamabad, Pakistan
Cause of deathGunshot injury
Resting placeBasti-Abdullah, Baluchistan
NationalityPakistani
Alma materQuaid-i-Azam University
ChildrenHaroon Rashid Ghazi
Haris Rashid Ghazi
Hamza Rashid Ghazi
RelativesMuhammad Abdullah Ghazi (father)
Abdul Aziz (brother)
Vice Chancellor of Faridia University
In office
1998 – 10 July 2007
Military career
Battles/warsWar in North-West Pakistan
Soviet war in Afghanistan
Siege of Lal Masjid †
Signature

Abdul Rashid was killed during Operation Silence after Pakistan Army Special Operations Commandos' teams stormed the madrasah he and his students had been using.

Early life

He was an ethnic Baloch, descending from the Sadwani clan of the Mazari tribe, in the town of Rojhan in Rajanpur, the border district of Punjab province of Pakistan.[2]

In his youth Abdul Rashid defied his father's wish that he receive formal Islamic education as he wanted to live a modern life. He completed his MSc in International Relations from Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad in 1987–1988.[3] According to one of his professors, "He was a normal, modern student who was well adjusted to a co-educational system."[3] Remembered by his friends as "a bright student and an active member of a progressive student organisation", He could have been a diplomat in the foreign office or an educationist,” his friend once stated in an interview.

He was non-religious during that time, hardly if ever going to the mosque and reading authors like Karl Marx, Max Weber and Henry Kissinger, "a lively fellow but always focused on becoming an international figure in world diplomacy," a friend added, to the extent that he stopped talking to his father, who was antagonized by his "Westernized" lifestyle.[4]

Work for UN

After taking an M.Sc. in history, he obtained a job at the Ministry of Education in Islamabad as a Grade-17 officer where he also held a brief stint as the editor of its monthly magazine Diyami,[5] and later worked with UNESCO, a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) based in Paris.[3]

Soviet–Afghan War

During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Ghazi's father Muhammad Abdullah Ghazi played a major role in recruiting and training Mujahideen, who were Muslims that were struggling in their religion. In 1998, Ghazi and his father met Osama bin Laden. Ghazi, when referring to these events, stated: "The meeting inspired me to work for the establishment of Islam." Furthermore, he also recalled that at the end of the meeting, he picked up a glass from which Laden was drinking water and drank it. An amused bin Laden asked Ghazi, "why he did that?" To which Ghazi replied : "I drank from your glass so that Allah would make me a (great) warrior like you." It's said that it's during this visit to bin Laden and Mullah Omar in Kandahar that Ghazi became radicalized and eschewed his former modernist outlook.[6]

Father's Assassination

A week after Ghazi and his father returned from Kandahar, on Saturday 17 October 1998, Ghazi's father who had a routine every day whereby he would walk to his seminary Faridia University in Sector E-7 Of Islamabad for giving lectures, At noon when he returned Abdul Aziz, his elder son, approached him and spoke to him. When Maulana approached his house, a man standing in front of the door walked towards him and pulled out a gun and opened fire until the magazine was empty, badly injuring Maulana. Afterwards, he fired at Abdul Aziz, who barely escaped death. The assassin escaped with the help of an accomplice waiting outside in a car. Maulana Abdullah died of his injuries on the way to the hospital.

Abdul Rashid Ghazi lodged the FIR and the police investigated the case. After a relentless effort, a man was arrested and afterwards, during ID Parade, several eyewitnesses identified the assassin. However, he was released the next day without reason. Abdul Rashid Ghazi protested against the release and warned the police of legal action if the suspect was not arrested soon. With Ghazi increasing pressure on police, he was asked to withdraw the case or face the fate of his father. According to his friend, this was turning point in Ghazi's life, and he became disillusioned with the system.

Post-2001

Encouraged by his transformation his brother appointed him as the deputy cleric at Lal Masjid although he rarely led the prayers there.[7]

He first came on the political scene in 2001, when the religious parties of the country announced an organization for the defense of Afghanistan against the American invasion. Abdul Rashid Ghazi pledged support for the Taliban against the Americans, criticizing Musharraf for his submissive attitude towards them and openly challenging his authority.[8]

In August 2004, the Pakistan government claimed he was involved in a plot against the president, the army and parliament; however this was later refuted by the government minister for religious affairs, and later by the government.[9]

Activism

Ghazi was a well-known activist against enforced disappearances in Pakistan. In 2004, he founded Defense of Muslim Rights, and in 2006, he co-founded Defence of Human Rights Pakistan, together with human rights activist Amina Masood Janjua and Khalid Khawaja.[10] The Al-Qasim Foundation was also set up by Ghazi immediately after the 2005 Earthquake and delivered relief goods worth Rs100 million to affectees under his supervision.[11]

Assassination attempt

In early 2005, one morning just after dawn, Ghazi was returning from teaching a class at the Faridia University (which he managed and was the vice-chancellor of). He was driving along a four-lane highway in the shadow of the Margalla Hills when he noticed that someone in a nearby car was waving a gun at him. Ghazi fired warning shots from his licensed pistol, confusing the assassins, after which they sped away. It's the reason why he always carried an AK-47.[12]

Death and legacy

After negotiations allegedly failed, the military decided to take action. This began as Pakistan Army Special Forces (SF), Pakistan Army Rangers, and Special Service Group (SSG) stormed the mosque. Ghazi himself remained in seminary with a few students. He called for a safe way in which he would not be humiliated like his brother, but government denied his requests. The Pakistan Ministry of Interior reported that he was killed on 10 July 2007 during Operation Silence.[13]

A few days after his death, his famous saying "We can be martyred but we will not surrender" was featured as Quote of the Day on Time's website.[14]

On 20 September 2007, bin Laden released a new tape called "Come to Jihad" with his voice over previously released footage of him. In the tape bin Laden called on Pakistanis, especially the soldiers, to overthrow President Pervez Musharraf, promising what he called retaliation for the storming of the Red Mosque, stating that "twenty years after the soil of Pakistan soaked up the blood of one of the greatest jihadi fighters, the Imam Abdallah Azzam, today Pakistan is witness to the death of another great Muslim, Imam Abdul al-Rashid Ghazi."[15] Another leading Al-Qaida operative, Abu Yahya al-Libi, in a statement dated to 31 July 2007, talked of him as being "at the top of this regiment of lions is the courageous imam and the active scholar, the martyr, the son of a martyred father, and a martyred mother too, as we consider them as such, but Allah is the final Judge, Abd-al-Rashid Ghazi, may Allah bestow His mercy upon them, who spoke the truth at a time of subordination, and exalted faith at a time of submissiveness, and despised he who was evil and proud, who depended on his own strength and relied on his own omnipotence. He would confidently, surely and serenely tell him, 'You depend on your audacity and conceit, but I depend on Allah'."[16]

His death, considered a shaheed (martyr) for extremists because he fought for his ideals till the end, influenced terrorism both in Pakistan, where the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, the most deadly terrorist group in the country, was founded as a reaction to his death and became active only few months after he passed away, and at a global level as well, for instance Ansar al-Sham, active in the Syrian civil war, naming a training camp after him.[17]

Publications
  • Islami nizam ka mujawwiza khaka (Proposed blueprint of Islamic system)[18]

References
  1. Cameron-Moore, Simon "Pakistan counts costs of bloody end to mosque siege" Reuters, 10 July 2007, retrieved 27 July 2009.
  2. Tadfeen Islamabad mein ki jaey BBCUrdu, 11 July 2007, retrieved 21 July 2009 Archived 8 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  3. "Islamabad Red Mosque Cleric Killed" Archived 2007-07-12 at the Wayback Machine Pakistan Times, 11 July 2007, retrieved 27 July 2009
  4. Nadeem F. Paracha (3 November 2013), "Red handed", Dawn News. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  5. Qandeel Siddique, The Red Mosque operation and its impact on the growth of the Pakistani Taliban, report for Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI), p. 13. Link.
  6. Zahid Hussain, The Scorpion's Tail: The Relentless Rise of Islamic Militants in Pakistan-And How It Threatens America, Simon and Schuster (2010), p. 112
  7. Syed, Baqir Sajjad (11 July 2007). "Maulana Abdul Rashid: A Ghazi who died a 'Shaheed'". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  8. Michelle Shephard (9 July 2007), "Mosque crisis highlights Pakistan's turmoil", The Star. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  9. Farooqui, Asif (10 July 2007). "Obituary: Abdul Rashid Ghazi". BBC News.
  10. Lal Masjid : A Brief History
  11. "Crimson tide". The Express Tribune. 15 August 2010. Retrieved 21 January 2021.
  12. Baqir Sajjad Syed (11 July 2007), "Maulana Abdul Rashid: A Ghazi who died a 'Shaheed'", Dawn News. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  13. "Pakistan militant cleric killed". BBC News. 10 July 2007.
  14. "Quotes of the Day". TIME.com. 6 July 2007.
  15. N. Elahi, Terrorism in Pakistan: The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Challenge to Security, Bloomsbury Publishing (2019), p. 101
  16. IntelCenter, IntelCenter Words of Abu Yahya Al-Libi, Tempest Publishing (2008), p. 93
  17. Zahid Hussain (13 July 2017), "The legacy of Lal Masjid", Dawn News. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  18. Zafar Imran, "The Religious Godfather of the Punjabi Taliban: Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi", in Militant Leadership Monitor - Jamestown, Volume I, Issue 5 (27 May 2010), p. 5
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