Most of the world’s most wanted Muslim terrorists involved in the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks hid inside Pakistan or operated from Pakistan. They found shelter in almost every division of Punjab. Osama bin Laden lived for years in a safe house in Abbottabad and was killed there on 2 May 2011. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the principal architect of 11 September, was arrested in Rawalpindi on 1 March 2003. Ramzi bin al-Shibh, the coordinator between the hijackers and al-Qaeda, was seized in Karachi on 11 September 2002. Abu Zubaydah was arrested in Faisalabad on 28 March 2002. Mustafa al-Hawsawi was captured with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Rawalpindi on 1 March 2003. Walid bin Attash was arrested in Karachi on 27 April 2003. Ammar al-Baluchi, involved in sending money to the hijackers, was seized in Karachi on 29 April 2003. From Abbottabad to Karachi, Pakistan became a haven for Islamic terrorism.
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan kept up a public alliance with Western powers while stabbing those same powers in the back. From al-Qaeda to ISIS, the masterminds, suppliers, facilitators, safe-house keepers and field Jihadis of almost every major jihad network remained inside Pakistan. They received houses, local contacts, money and, often, official indifference. The West was told that Pakistan was an ally against terrorism. In reality Pakistan had become their largest sanctuary.
The question remains: why did America not treat Abbottabad as it treated Jalalabad, Kabul and Kandahar? The same Islamic terror network operated there as in those Afghan cities. The only difference was that Abbottabad lay inside Pakistan, so Western powers treated it as an “allied state” and did not apply the same pressure they used against Terrorism centers in Afghanistan. Pakistan remained both a refuge for Jihadis and an ally of the West.
Gujranwala Division belongs to the same map.
It is one of the Punjab regions dominated by jihadist and Islamic sectarian organizations. Gujranwala earned the distinction of supplying the largest number of terrorists to Lashkar-e-Taiba. Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, the alliance of Jamaat-e-Islami, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Sami), Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan, Jamiat Ahle Hadith and Tehrik-e-Jafaria, held provincial and national assembly seats from Gujranwala and Sialkot. The influence of these jihadist and sectarian groups is clear from the fact that major parties such as the PPP and the Muslim League kept getting their candidates elected with the help of the same jihadis organizations.
The power of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in Gujranwala was shown when former city police chief Muhammad Ashraf Marth was murdered at his own doorstep. A close relative of that officer was then interior minister of Pakistan, yet no effective operation was launched against Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s local terror centers. In Gujranwala itself, a member of a jihadist group murdered a woman provincial minister in broad daylight. He had already killed several women. Local police took no action out of fear of the jihadist organizations.
Harkat-ul-Mujahideen first opened its office in Gujranwala. Public donations for organizations waging jihad in Kashmir and India also began first from this city.
Gujrat: Islamic Crime, Jihadist Sanctuaries and an al-Qaeda High Value Target
Gujrat is known as a city of Muslim criminal gangs and feuding communities. A cautious estimate puts annual killings at four to five hundred. Before the jihadist and Islamic sectarian culture took root, the bloodshed came from family feuds. Once that culture settled, countless Muslim criminals joined the jihadist groups for protection.
Terrorist Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a high-value al-Qaeda fugitive, was arrested in this city. He had lived in Gujrat for a long period with his companions, and local jihadist groups protected him.
On 24 July 2004, intelligence agencies and police surrounded a bungalow in Islam Nagar, Gujrat, the home district of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi. The hideout was identified after the arrest of an al-Qaeda member at Lahore airport. Electricity was cut, roads were sealed, and the DPO announced by megaphone that escape routes were closed. The foreign occupants opened fire from inside. It was the largest operation in Gujrat police history and lasted sixteen hours.
Those terrorists arrested included Abdullah, Saleem and Feroz from Kenya, Sudan and South Africa. The women were from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan. Later it emerged that Ahmed Khalfan was among them. The FBI had listed him as one of its most wanted men, with a five million dollar reward.
U.S. documents recorded his many jihad aliases. He was involved in the 1998 bombings of the American embassies in Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. Those attacks killed 224 people and wounded five thousand. His companion Mohamed Sadeek Odeh was sentenced; Khalfan went underground. On 16 December 1998 an American court sentenced him in absentia for buying the trucks used in the embassy attacks. After the bombings he came to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, a paradise for Muslim terrorists. He had direct links with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. In May 2004 he stood sixth on the FBI most wanted list.
Other Jihadis seized in Gujrat included his Uzbek wife Habiba, Saudi national Talha Zubair, Muhammad Kashif of Lahore, Mushtaq alias Abdullah, driver Asif Iqbal alias Faisal of Mandi Bahauddin, Asia Bibi, Fatima and children. Sources said Talha Zubair was being prepared for attacks on Pervez Musharraf. Interrogation showed that Musharraf, Shujaat Hussain, Faisal Saleh Hayat and Pervaiz Elahi were on their hit list.
Recovered items included explosives, weapons, grenades, mobile SIMs, maps, Arabic literature, about eight million rupees in cash, computers, a hard disk, a laptop and a scanner. The laptop and hard disk yielded sensitive information on al-Qaeda’s future plans. Emails showed Khalfan was planning attacks on major commercial centers in the United States and Britain. Maps of Chaklala and Karachi air bases, Karachi International Airport, and military installations in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad were also recovered. In January 2005 the government announced that he had been handed over to the United States of America.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Sahaba are still regarded as the strongest terrorist organizations in Gujrat. Their wanted Jihadis not only kill members of rival sects but also offer their services to local rival gangs. One powerful terror group, said to enjoy the backing of provincial ruling circles, is sheltered in the desolate “G” area on the Azad Kashmir border. The common impression is that it harbors sectarian killers and also assists the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Several of its Jihadis were named in an assassination attempt on Musharraf, then released after intervention by powerful circles and a Gujrat political family.
Mandi Bahauddin
The same pattern holds in Mandi Bahauddin. Jihadist organizations and sectarian elements enjoy the full cooperation of local politicians, landlords and traders.
Sialkot: Sectarian Islamic Attacks, Hindu Exodus to India, and the Expulsion of Christians
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Sahaba Jihadis have dominated Sialkot as well. Suicide attacks on imambargahs and mosques have already killed dozens. The city’s prosperous traders have openly financed sectarian groups and jihadist organizations.
The village of Adi Wal shows how jihadist pressure first drove Hindus to India, then expelled Ahmadis, and finally terrorized Christians into leaving. By 1990 the village had 109 families: 77 Muslim, 23 Hindu, 8 Christian and one Ahmadi.
On 5 February 1992, an armed procession of Jamaat-e-Islami Sialkot attacked Hindu homes and demanded that they be sent to India by force. A second attempt followed the Babri Masjid episode. The real pressure came from local Jihadis who said accept Islam or go to India. Two Hindu girls, Kamlesh Wanti and Lajwanti, were abducted and raped. The police station refused to register a case and sent word that the abductors should take the girls to another city. Three days later it was announced that both had accepted Islam. Armed men of a jihadist group distributed sweets and fired in the air. Two weeks later it was claimed that Lajwanti had hanged herself and Kamlesh Wanti had gone to Peshawar with her husband. Local people said both girls were killed because they refused conversion and demanded to go home. The Hindu families left for Jalandhar and the interior of Sindh to save their lives from Jihadis. No Hindu family remains in the village today. Tragedy is that they went to Sindh to save their lives, yet even today in Sindh minor Hindu girls are kidnapped, raped, forcibly converted to Islam married off to Muslim men aged 50, 60 or 70, and sometimes sold from one Muslim to other.
When a retired Ahmadi schoolteacher died, a fatwa was obtained that he could not be buried in the village graveyard. A procession threatened to pull out the corpse and burn it. The next day the family left for Rabwah with their belongings and the coffin.
Seeing what had happened to Hindus and Ahmadis, the Christians became terrified. After blasphemy incidents in Gujranwala and Samundri, a Muslim student group and a jihadist outfit brought out an armed procession for the honor of Muhammad and demanded that the accused be killed. Six of the eight Christian families fled. The two who stayed had no means to go elsewhere. Village elders then “rewrote the story” Hindus left because they could not find matches for their daughters; the Ahmadi left as a religious duty; the Christians were expelled because a Christian youth had abducted a Muslim girl. The khatib of the main mosque said the village was now “ideal” because only Muslims lived there.
1 October 2004 Suicide Attack on Masjid Zainabia, Sialkot
A Muslim suicide bomber killed 35 people in the Shia Masjid Zainabia. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi jihadi’s claimed responsibility. Those later arrested were released for lack of evidence. The mosque’s khatib, Maulvi Sajjad Hussain Khan, was shot dead by a Sipah-e-Sahaba terrorist.
September 2009 Church Burned in Village Jethi, Sambrial
A Muslim mob set a church on fire in Jethi, near Sambrial. Police said the tension began with alleged harassment of a Muslim girl and the dropping of a Quranic para. A Christian youth, Fanish Masih, was named. Police first detained his father; then Fanish surrendered and was placed in a security cell in Sialkot District Jail. The next day jail officials claimed he had hanged himself with the drawstring of his shalwar. This was not a suicide but a killing by Jihadis, carried out after collusion between police, jail staff, and Jihadis. A postmortem on his body was never conducted.
Anti-Christian Violence, False Blasphemy Accusations, Forced Conversion, and Killings in Gujranwala
Documentary records show that from 1987 to 2016 at least seventeen Christians in Gujranwala were accused of blasphemy. Some faced trial and imprisonment. Manzoor Masih was shot dead. Others were driven from their villages by Muslim mobs. Not every accused received a death sentence, but the charge itself produced arrest, exile, and in some cases murder. No complete official district list has been published for 2017 to 2026. The named record shows that the pattern did not end. It widened from blasphemy cases into rape, abduction, forced conversion, church attacks, property seizure, and killing.
1993 Salamat Masih, Manzoor Masih and Rehmat Masih, Ratta Dhotran
Twelve-year-old Salamat Masih, thirty-seven-year-old Manzoor Masih and forty-two-year-old Rehmat Masih were accused of writing insulting words against the Prophet of Islam on a mosque wall. All three were illiterate and could not read and write. They were still arrested and put on trial. About thirty Christian families were driven from the village. A Muslim mob came with torches, tried to burn houses, and said that if the accused were to be saved, everyone must accept Islam. The families fled to Francisabad.
On 5 April 1994, Manzoor Masih was shot dead outside a Lahore court. He had been the principal protector in the case. On 23 February 1995 the Lahore High Court acquitted Salamat Masih and Rehmat Masih, but they could not return to the village. Police themselves warned that a Muslim mob would kill them. Salamat Masih had to leave the country. The case proved that in Gujranwala a blasphemy accusation is not merely a trial. It is an attack on an entire Christian family, followed by murder and exile.
1999 2009 Killings, rape, church attack, and police abuse
In 1999 a young Christian man was killed in Gujranwala after he confronted a Muslim youth over the harassment of Christian girls. In 2000 Asif Masih was tortured and killed in police custody. An inquiry was ordered. In 2002 Shakeela Siddique, a 16-year-old Christian girl from Fatewala, was raped by an influential Muslim landlord. The family claimed that the police provided no help. That same year armed Muslim youth attacked the Presbyterian church in Satrah. Shots were fired. Police hesitated to register an FIR. In 2004 a two-and-a-half-year-old Christian child was reportedly sexually assaulted. In 2005 Christian residents of Kotli Khano an influential landlord killed a Christian peasant and tried to seize his land. In 2007 Ashraf Masih, a Christian municipal worker, was suspended after he refused to separate pages bearing Islamic inscriptions while cleaning municipal material. In 2008 Robin Sardar was arrested after a mob attacked his home over a false blasphemy allegation. His family fled. He was released only after the accuser withdrew the claim. In 2009 Arshad Masih was detained and abused because his father was a Christian preacher. He was later released and the case was dropped.
2010 Gulzar Kanwal, Rubina Bibi, and Mushtaq Masih
Gulzar Kanwal, a Christian woman in Wandu, was accused after a dispute over her cosmetics shop. A crowd gathered. She received death threats. Rubina Bibi, a Christian mother, was accused after a dispute with a Muslim neighbour. The charge was fabricated. In October, Mushtaq Masih was jogging near a terror madrasa in Aziz Colony when he was accused of throwing Quran pages on the street. Police arrested him under Section 295-B.
16 April 2011 Azizabad / Gulzar Colony mob attack
Farrukh Mushtaq Gill and his father Mushtaq Gill were accused of desecrating the Quran and insulting Muhammad. Mosque loudspeakers announced the charge. A large Muslim mob attacked the Christian colony. Homes and a school were attacked. The mob surrounded the Gill house and tried to burn it. Hundreds of Christian families fled. Police took both men into custody. A Gojra-style massacre was only just avoided.
2016 2017 Death sentences and forced conversion
In 2016 the Gujranwala Anti-Terrorism Court sentenced two Christians, Anjum Naz Sindhu and Javed Naz, to death on blasphemy charges. Appeals remained pending. In a separate 16-person case, two Christians received six-year sentences, five Christians were acquitted, and nine others were released on bail. In 2017, a Christian girl known as Sovera, also called Fatima after conversion, was abducted in Gujranwala, forcibly converted to Islam, and married to her abductor.
2019 2021 Abduction and forced conversion of Christian girls
On 13 February 2019, 15-year-old Shiza Riasat was recorded as abducted in Gujranwala. In 2020 Sohail Masih of Nowshera Virkan was accused of posting blasphemous material on Facebook. A crowd demanded his public execution. In 2021 Mehwish Patras, a Christian college student, disappeared. Her family claimed abduction at gunpoint for forced marriage. Nayab Gill, 13, was abducted, converted to Islam, and married to a 30-year-old Muslim man. Sunaina James Masih, 15, was abducted, forcibly converted, and married. Saira Waris, 17, was abducted on 2 July 2021, and Sandia, 14, was abducted on 1 July 2021. Both girls were raped, forcibly converted to Islam, and married to their Muslim abductors.
August 2022 Zahid Mahmood
Zahid Mahmood was accused of speaking against Islam after attending a Christian event. The next day a Muslim mob attacked his office. He escaped. The mob filed a police case and demanded his arrest and death.
2022 2024 Fansan Shahid
Fansan Shahid was arrested in 2022 on blasphemy charges. His family said his phone had been lost in 2019. In January 2024 a Gujranwala court sentenced the 54-year-old Christian to life imprisonment for blasphemy and imposed additional terms for promoting hatred against Islam.
2024 2026 Shootings, occupation of Christian homes, attack on worship
In 2024 at least ten blasphemy incidents were recorded in Gujranwala. Christians were hit out of all proportion. That year armed men attacked Christian youths in Mandiala Warraich. Fourteen-year-old Sunil Masih was shot dead. Another boy was injured. Suleman Masih, 24, was attacked in Kot Saadullah, Rahawali, and died on 1 January 2025.
In 2025 Waqas Masih, 22, survived a throat-slashing attack. The attacker accused him of blasphemy and pressured him to accept Islam. On 1 January 2026 Kashif Masih, a Christian father of three, was murdered in Langowal village. The Muslim perpetrators remained at large. The Sarwar Masih family said their ancestral home was occupied. Quranic-verse banners were put up on the property to spread terror. Anyone who tried to reclaim the house or take the banners down faced a blasphemy accusation or death. At Klasske, a Muslim truck driver drove into an Easter sunrise procession and injured about 60 people. The driver remains at large. In late August 2026, the Christian cemetery in Qalha Sangian was desecrated.
These cases are not isolated. From Ratta Dhotran to Aziz Colony, from 1993 to 2026, blasphemy accusations, abduction, forced conversion, mob assault, and murder have been used against Christians with near-total impunity. Many cases are never reported because families fear being killed.
Conclusion: An Unbroken System of Islamic Impunity
The supply of manpower to Lashkar-e-Taiba, the first office of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, the open centers of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, the shelter given to an al-Qaeda high-value target in Gujrat, the attacks on imambargahs and churches in Sialkot, the flight of Hindus from villages such as Adi Wal to India, the expulsion of Christian families, and killings under draconian blasphemy accusations are links in one chain. Until the jihadist networks, their financiers, their political patrons, the safe houses and the culture of official neglect are dismantled, the bloodshed and the terrorization of Christians will continue.
Tony says
Islam and its Muslims are a continuous, terroristic threat to ALL Non-Muslims as taught in Islamic Law and in Islam’s Qur’an(Qur’an 9:5, 29, 41, 111; 49:15, etc.). Allah in Qur’an 8:39 commands, “And engage in war with them[Non-Muslims] until there will not be sedition and the religion will be completely to Allah…” Ultimately, Allah desires to fill hell with Non-Muslims(Qur’an 7:18; 11:119; 32:13; 98:6, etc.).
Islam is the deceitful, daily practice of Islamic Law by Muslims, and Allah rewards his Muslim believers, Criminal-Genocidal-Terrorists of Allah, with a Garden Paradise when they kill and are killed in Jihad for Allah as war against the enemies of Allah, the Non-Muslims, using MUSLIM MONEY and MUSLIM LIVES to make Islam, Islamic Law, supreme(Qur’an 2:191; 4:89, 91, 95; 9:5, 29, 41, 111; 49:15, etc.). Hence, Public Funding is a privilege that should not be granted to organizations like Islam and its Muslim Organizations which are fundamentally against the US Constitution.