Multan Division: Punjab’s Premier Theater of Sectarian Slaughter
Multan Division stands as Punjab’s most notorious epicenter of sectarian slaughter and Islamic militancy. For decades, banned groups including Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Sipah-e-Sahaba, and Sipah-e-Muhammad exercised near-unrestricted dominance across its districts. Hundreds of people were murdered on purely sectarian grounds in Multan, Muzaffargarh, and Khanewal. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi operatives destroyed the Iranian Cultural Center (Khana-e-Farhang) in Multan. Imambargahs, Christian homes, schools, churches, and other places of worship were repeatedly targeted. Confessions by arrested Lashkar-e-Jhangvi operatives Malik Muhammad Ishaq and Akram Lahori detailed dozens of killings and attacks across Multan, Muzaffargarh, Khanewal, and surrounding areas. Sipah-e-Muhammad operatives pursued their own campaign of targeted violence. The sectarian war that has scarred Punjab inflicted its deepest wounds on Multan Division.
The Birthplace of Organized Jihad in Pakistan
The roots of organized jihad on Pakistani soil trace directly to Multan. Local resident Maulana Allama Masood Alvi is widely regarded as a foundational figure in early jihad organizing. He established Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen in March 1973 at Multan’s famous Deobandi seminary Khair-ul-Madaris. The son of renowned Jihadi Mullah Maulana Muhammad Sharif Kashmiri (Sheikh-ul-Hadith at the same seminary), Alvi combined Islamic study with physical training and military tactics. In the presence of like-minded mullahs at the seminary’s Jama Masjid, he founded the group with the explicit aim of proving Islam’s military strength worldwide and lifting Muslims from humiliation. Its first target was the Muslim minority community. A jihad training camp was set up in the forest near Ali Pur Jatoi to prepare Muslim students from Khair-ul-Madaris and other terror madrasas.
After the Khatm-e-Nabuwwat movement subsided, the group dispersed. Alvi moved between seminaries until Jihadi Khawaja Khan Muhammad of Kundian Sharif allowed him to train Muslim students in terrorism skills. Weapons were supplied; daily target practice became routine. A trained contingent soon emerged. When Mufti Mahmood became Chief Minister of the then NWFP, he visited Kundian Sharif and was received with a formal salute by Alvi’s trained mujahideen an extraordinary display at a time when open military training was rare. Pakistani agencies later pursued Alvi, prompting him to relocate to the Kashmir border region, where he conducted an operation that killed 12 Indian soldiers. He later founded Pakistan’s first dedicated jihad madrasa, Khalidia, in Chichawatni, where military training was mandatory in the Islamic curriculum. One of his students, Jihadi Maulana Irshad Ahmad, led the first contingent into Afghanistan in 1980 and later became a central commander of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. Alvi himself was mortally wounded by a landmine near Paktia in 1988.
Key Commanders and Early Networks from Multan Division
Another key figure from the division, Jihadi Commander Nasrullah Mansoor Langrial of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami held in Indian custody since 1992 hailed from Chichawatni. While studying at Khair-ul-Madaris in Multan (then a hub of jihad activity), he enlisted for training in 1982, fought in Afghanistan, and later pioneered the collection of jizya in Indian-administered Kashmir. He dedicated his life to the jihad cause.
Weaponizing Draconian Blasphemy: The Ayub Masih Case
Anti-Christian violence followed the same pattern of impunity. On 14 October 1996 in Arifwala (then under Multan Division), Christian Ayub Masih was arrested on a false blasphemy complaint by his Muslim neighbor Muhammad Akram, who claimed Masih had praised Christianity and recommended Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. The accusation was a classic land-grab scheme. Immediately after the arrest, Muhammad seized Masih’s property and the entire Christian population of the village was forced to flee under threats. On 20 April 1998 a court sentenced Ayub Masih to death under Section 295-C. He spent nearly six years in Multan Jail, enduring repeated attacks by fellow Muslim inmates, denial of medical care, and prolonged solitary confinement, while the complainant and attackers faced no consequences. Only sustained international pressure led the Supreme Court to acquit him on 15 August 2002, openly stating the case had been fabricated for personal gain. This remains an early and clear illustration of how Pakistan’s draconian blasphemy laws are weaponized by local Muslims to terrorize Christians, seize property, and enforce Islamic supremacy while the perpetrators almost invariably walk free.
The Shantinagar Massacre: Organized Arson and State Inaction
Worse followed on 17 January 1997 in Shantinagar village, Khanewal District. Police raided the home of Raj Masih on false charges of illegal liquor sales; no alcohol was found, but the Holy Bible was desecrated during the search. Christian protests led to the suspension of some Muslim officers, who then threatened retaliation. Three weeks later, announcements from the local mosque claimed Christians had burned a Quran and scattered its pages outside. Approximately 25,000 Muslims from 14 surrounding villages, joined by local mujahideen, marched on Shantinagar and Tobha. They burned 1,500 homes, 12 churches, a hostel, and a dispensary. They also stole the Christians’ sheep, goats, and cattle. Police stood aside and gave the mob free rein. This was among the worst such attacks since Pakistan’s creation. Later evidence showed Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad Jihadis participated, using advanced incendiary materials. The assault was meticulously planned, with mosque announcements mobilizing the Muslims for arson and looting.
February 14, 2014 – Multan Church and School Property Seized
A group of Muslims led by Jihadi Anwar Khushi stormed a church building in Multan and attacked the associated school property. The Jihadis seized the church premises and forcibly displaced the Christian occupants. Although public details remain limited because of fear, the attack by Jihadi Anwar Khushi and his group was a clear act of Islamic aggression in which a church and its school were seized and the Christian occupants driven out. It forms part of the established pattern across Multan Division in which Churches and community assets are systematically targeted and taken over with complete impunity.
May 25, 2021 Armed Assault on Harvest Church, Khanewal District
On the evening of 25 May 2021, five armed Jihadis attacked Harvest Church in Village 81-82/10R, Khanewal District, during evening prayers. The attackers, identified in reports as Sabir Butt, Muhammad Faisal, Aqib Javed and others, forced entry, fired warning shots, and beat the watchman Nadeem Masih (who was brutally injured) along with other Christians, including Binyameen Masih and Rafaqat Masih. At least three people required hospital treatment. The Jihadis damaged the church gate, windows, furniture, and two motorbikes. An FIR (No. 191/21) was registered at Sadar Khanewal Police Station. The brazen assault during worship highlights the vulnerability of even small rural Christian congregations across Multan Division.
In April 2011, a mujahid named Akhtar Hussain publicly desecrated the Holy Bible in front of Saint Anthony’s Catholic Church in Multan. This was no isolated act of vandalism but part of a deliberate pattern of Islamic intimidation and humiliation directed at Christians. Individual Christians in Multan, including professionals who have spoken out against the violence, have faced repeated death threats and harassment from both police and Jihadis, confirming the permanent climate of Islamic fear and insecurity under which the Christians are forced to live.
Madrasas as Engines of Sectarian Hate
Islamic Terror Hub Khanewal’s Darul Uloom Eidgah and its graduates have long held primacy in spreading sectarian bloodshed and Islamic terrorism. Kabirwala, 15 km northwest of Khanewal, became a notorious hideout for wanted Jihadis. Jihadi Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, founder of the terrorist outfit Sipah-e-Sahaba in the 1980s, studied there for seven years. The four-story terror seminary, established in 1953 by Deoband graduate Jihadi Maulana Abdul Khaliq, houses 1,500 Jihadis and 180 teachers, operates without government aid on an annual budget of 1.5 crore rupees, and received a ten-million-rupee donation in 2009 from a Karachi Muslim businessman.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Punjab’s Open Threats in 2009
In late July 2009, nearly 200 shopkeepers and 35 educational institutions in Muzaffargarh District received letters ordering them to adopt Sharia and abandon all “un-Islamic” practices. Television cable and internet café owners were given 24 hours to shut down or face severe Islamic consequences. Women in Kot Addu were threatened with acid attacks if they appeared unveiled, with a five-day deadline. A week later, Tehrik-e-Taliban Punjab sent letters to Shia homes in Daira Din Panah, Sanawan, and Mahmood Kot, labeling them kafir and rafizi and ordering them to abandon their “infidel” beliefs or be erased from existence. The prescribed punishments included killing Shia men and burning their bodies, turning their wives into concubines, enslaving their children, and distributing their property among the mujahideen. The language closely mirrored a letter issued under the signature of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Terrorist Muslim Khan and published in major Pakistani newspapers.
Arms Caches, Explosions, and Local Safe Houses
On the morning of 13 July 2009, an explosion at the home and terror seminary of Sipah-e-Sahaba Jihadi Riaz Ali in Chak No. 129/15-L near Mian Channu, Khanewal, killed 17 people (mostly children leaving classes) and injured around 150, destroying nearly 100 homes. Recovered materials included SIM cards, rocket launchers, suicide jackets, jihad literature, and pamphlets. Riaz Ali, a primary school teacher and former Taliban associate in Afghanistan in the 1990s, had established the seminary where his Jihadi sister Fatima taught. He and two brothers were detained; Fatima was among the dead. Earlier, in Kacha Khoh near Khanewal, eight members of Jihadi Saifullah Niazi’s family were gunned down in broad daylight. Later confessions by mujahideen arrested in Dera Ghazi Khan directly implicated the networks linked to Riaz Ali.
A Dense Web of Banned Jihadi Groups and Wanted Operatives
Southern Punjab, including Multan Division, has for decades served as a major stronghold for Sipah-e-Sahaba, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, and Lashkar-e-Taiba. Virtually every major Jihadi and high-value wanted operative with government bounties on their heads hail from this region: Shakeel of Bahawalnagar, Qari Akram alias Ikram of Multan, Shahnawaz of Muzaffargarh, Shahabuddin of Multan, Ahsan Shah of Rahim Yar Khan, Nasrullah alias Fazlur Rahman of Fort Abbas, Haji Abdul Mannan of Bahawalnagar, Abdul Majid of Layyah, Hafizullah alias Israr of Kot Sultan (Layyah), Hafizur Rahman of Layyah, Abdul Wahid of Multan, Zafar Iqbal alias Bala of Jhang, Qari Ramzan Qaisrani of Dera Ghazi Khan, Zakaria of Khairpur Tamewali, Anisur Rahman of Vehari, Molvi Jaleel Ahmad of Bahawalnagar, Gohar Iqbal of Bahawalnagar, Maulana Abdullah Jan of Ahmadpur East, Qari Abdullah Qayyum of Sarai Sadu (Khanewal), Mahmood Ahmad alias Sohail of Bahawalpur, Aslam of Khairpur Tamewali, Abu Bakr of Jhang, Akram Habib of Vehari, and Qari Hayat of Khanewal, among others.
Persistent Infrastructure and Expanding Rivalries
Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad maintain thousands of trained mujahideen in Multan who can be mobilized for Islamic terrorism on short notice. Jaish-e-Muhammad operates multiple jihad madrasas in Multan city that recruit Jihadis and also support Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Dozens of its sectarian operatives remain imprisoned in Multan Jail on murder and related charges. Lashkar-e-Taiba draws its second-largest financial support (after Faisalabad Division) from Multan, and hundreds of its Jihadis from the division have passed through jihad training camps in Muridke and Chehlabandi, Azad Kashmir. Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi assassinated senior government official Tajammul Hussain in Khanewal simply for treating their arrested killers with hostility. Multan Division’s overall identity is defined by sectarianism and jihad infrastructure. Major training and operational centers of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad operate openly. Countless terror madrasas continue to promote sectarian hatred and Islamic supremacy. The rapidly growing Barelvi group Dawat-e-Islami claims hundreds of thousands of mujahideen and gathers hundreds of thousands annually at Madina-tul-Auliya in Multan while constructing a vast new Jihadis complex outside the city at a cost of millions. Local observers warn that Multan, long defined by Shia-Sunni and Shia-Deobandi conflict, is now poised for additional Barelvi-Ahl-e-Hadith and Deobandi-Ahl-e-Hadith rivalries as these Jihadi groups expand. Local Muslim politicians, pirs, landlords, and capitalists routinely weaponize Islamic identity for electoral gain.
Conclusion: A Continuous and Unending Cycle of Islamic Impunity
The pattern remains unbroken: organized jihad rooted in the 1970s, expanded through the Afghan, Indian, and Kashmir campaigns, sustained by Jihadi terror madrasa networks and local funding, and protected by institutional negligence. Christians continue to be soft targets, subjected to draconian blasphemy accusations and orchestrated Muslim mob attacks, while the perpetrators enjoy near-total impunity. Multan Division is not merely a victim of Pakistan’s broader jihad problem it is one of its primary incubators. Until the networks, the safe houses, the Islamic training infrastructure, and the culture of official indifference are dismantled, the bloodshed and the terrorization of Christians will continue.
aum says
Great Research.