Rawalpindi Division: A Stronghold of Jihadist Networks, Sectarian Bloodshed, Anti-Christian Violence, and the Capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Rawalpindi Division is counted among those divisions caught in the grip of the Islamic sectarian killing terrorist organizations Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. It is also a stronghold of jihadist organizations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Harkat-ul-Ansar and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. The districts of Chakwal and Jhelum are known for hundreds of incidents of Islamic sectarian violence. Imambargahs, mosques and graveyards have been hit by suicide attacks and bomb blasts. In this same division, Christian churches, settlements and girls have been targeted again and again bombs, mobs lynching, false blasphemy accusations, abduction, forced conversion to Islam, rape and murder.
Rawalpindi is also the city of the Pakistan Army’s General Headquarters, GHQ. Jihadist networks, sectarian war and violence against Christians have continued in the shadow of this military capital.
In Rawalpindi Division the number of Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba terror madrasas is more than one hundred, and these madrasas recruit for jihad in Indian-administered Kashmir and jihad in Afghanistan. The main Shia seminary, Hawza Ilmiyya, stands in the central city of Rawalpindi. Another branch of Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Fiqh-e-Jafaria, whose head Hamid Ali Moosavi has the backing of Pakistan’s powerful secret agencies ISI, runs a terror madrasa in the middle of the city. Both factions want Ja‘fari fiqh enforced in Pakistan and, while attacking each other’s Islamic beliefs, each claims to be the true Shia Islam.
Chakwal, Takfir and Maulana Akram Awan
The sectarian-split district of Chakwal has always held an important place in Pakistan’s sectarian tradition. Shia zakirs and ulama here, together with Deobandi and Ahl-e-Hadith ulama and khatibs, played a major role in the Islamic sectarian war. Besides fatwas of takfir against rival schools, Jihadis were recruited for sectarian slaughter.
The terrorist Maulana Akram Awan, who played a major role in Pakistan’s jihad culture, belonged to this area. He had a long history of links between the Pakistan Army and Jihadis. He prepared an armed force of Muslims and put it through hard training for a Khooni Inqilab, a “bloody revolution,” inside Pakistan. He died on 7 December 2017 in Rawalpindi after a long illness and was buried in Munara, Chakwal. He was 82.
Awan was head of Tanzeem-ul-Ikhwan. He was a practitioner of military jihad and of jihad to change the system of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Chakwal was, and remains, a nursery of manpower for the Pakistan Army. He belonged to the Owaisia order. The number of that order’s followers and murids in the army has been very large.
In 1964 he took bayat at the hand of Jihadi Maulana Allah Yar. When he was made a fully authorized khalifa, he had been linked to the notorious dacoit gang of Muhammad Khan.
In 1986 Tanzeem-ul-Ikhwan was founded. At first it was called an apolitical spiritual link, so retired and serving military and civil officers joined. In 1995, during Benazir’s government, Awan’s name was also mentioned in the plot by Brigadier Mustansar Billah and Major General Zahir Abbasi to overthrow the government and raise an Islamic state, but because of ties with senior military officers he was not proceeded against in that case. In 1998 he organized the group on political lines and, at a public meeting in Lahore, took a bayat of death from his murids for the enforcement of real Islam in Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Countless Jihadis of the organization were sent to Afghanistan to aid the Taliban. In monthly Amar Shad, Lahore, April 2002, Awan said: those who went, went; may Allah accept them. The next day a general asked if his men were there. He said yes. The general asked what would happen. He said they had left our hands. If they became martyrs, may Allah accept them. Until they were martyred they would stay there. They left from here finished with us; we have not even asked after them.
In December 1999 Al-Akhwan Jihad Force was announced for jihad in Indian-administered Kashmir. Deputy amir Major (retd) Maqbool Ahmad Shah said in monthly Arshad, August 2000, that they had coordination with Lashkar-e-Taiba and were giving manpower (Terrorists) and money according to their strength. Awan’s real focus remained an Islamic system inside Pakistan.
In December 2000 he gathered about 6,000 murids “Suicide bombers, jihadis and terrorist” at his centre in Minara, Chakwal, and gave Musharraf an ultimatum: if Sharia was not enforced he would march on Islamabad with 30,000 murids. They would be unarmed, Qurans in their hands, tasbihs on their necks, the kalima on their tongues; but if anyone pointed guns at them they would seize the guns and enter the city by force. Monthly Amar Shad, Chakwal, January 2001.
The first date was 24 December 2000. On the request of the Rawalpindi Corps Commander it was postponed to 7 March 2001. A negotiating team led by federal minister for religious affairs Mahmood Ahmed Ghazi came to Minara, struck a deal with Musharraf’s approval, formed a committee to finalize basic points for the enforcement of Islam, and the long march and siege were postponed. The centre of Awan’s speeches remained jihad until his death.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Nisar Road
Rawalpindi also has this distinction: after Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s most important terrorist, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was seized here. On 1 March 2003 the planner of 11 September was taken into custody at house No. 18-1 on Nisar Road, owned by a woman “Farzana Abdul Qudoos” nazima of Jamaat-e-Islami. Her husband was a well-known doctor. A son held a senior army post at Kahuta. Within a few hours he was handed to the United States. Today he is in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay. He has also claimed the killing of Daniel Pearl. The 11 September trial is set for June 2028.
He was asleep when he was seized. As soon as the name was confirmed, Americans on the operation informed CIA Director George Tenet. After the 1995 exposure of the plot to destroy American airliners over the Pacific he had already become an FBI and CIA target.
That same Islamic party has a record of attacking American missions in Pakistan. On 21–22 November 1979, Jamaat-e-Islami aligned students burned the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad. In the same wave a Muslim mob of about 5,000 in Lahore burned the American Center, then attacked the U.S. Consulate, burned cars, and tried to burn the building with staff inside. Police held the Lahore consulate; the Islamabad embassy was destroyed. On 16 March 2011 Jamaat-e-Islami and PTI led a mob that tried to storm the American consulate Lahore after Raymond Davis was released. On 15 May 2018 Jamaat-e-Islami’s student wing, Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, tried to attack the consulate gate and burned the U.S. flag. The house that hid Khalid Sheikh Mohammed belonged to the same organization.
Sheikh Rashid and the Kashmir Hub
The political leader Sheikh Rashid Ahmad ran a terrorist training centre for Kashmir jihad on the edge of Rawalpindi for a long time. He never denied it. India kept citing that jihad training centre as the reason for refusing him a visa. Rawalpindi is also called a hub of Kashmir jihad, from which prepared Terrorist convoys enter Azad Kashmir. A large share of funds for Terrorists Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad comes from this city. Dozens of terror offices still work under other names.
Mumtaz Qadri and the Blasphemy Shrine
On 4 January 2011, in Islamabad, Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer was shot dead by his guard Mumtaz Qadri for supporting the blasphemy law’s victims and for defending the Christian woman Asia Bibi. Qadri was hanged on 29 February 2016. His grave in Bara Kahu, in the Islamabad Rawalpindi belt, became a shrine. Thousands still visit and treat the killer as an Islamic martyr. This is the climate in which the churches, Christian girls and blasphemy cases of this division proceed.
Anti-Christian Violence, False Blasphemy Accusations, Forced Conversion, and Killings in Rawalpindi and Islamabad
20 24 October 2004 Christian church, Rawalpindi
A bomb or grenade was thrown into the courtyard of a “Christian church in Rawalpindi” It was found and defused. Four days later a second explosive was thrown at the same church. That too was found and defused.
3 November 2004 Samuel Sethi, 8, Rawalpindi
An eight-year-old Christian child was kidnapped. After ransom was paid, he was killed. Contemporary U.S. reporting said no arrests were made.
16 March 2005 Miskeen Musharaf Colony, Islamabad
More than 150 Muslims attacked Christian women gathered in a church for prayer and fasting. The women were beaten. Property was totally damaged.
3 June 2010 Naseerabad, Rawalpindi
A human-rights report recorded that a Christian girl was raped while held in illegal police detention. Her name was withheld.
27 September 2010 Lubna Masih, 12, Dhoke Ellahi Buksh, Rawalpindi
After leaving home, 12-year-old Lubna Masih was abducted, raped and murdered by Muslims. Her body was found at a cemetery.
21 March 2012 Ratta Amral, Rawalpindi
A 13-year-old Christian girl was kidnapped and gang-raped. Police first refused to register an FIR. The Supreme Court took suo motu notice.
22 July 2012 Pastor Zafar Bhatti, Rawalpindi Adiala Jail
Pastor Zafar Bhatti was detained from 22 July 2012 in Rawalpindi on a false blasphemy charge over alleged SMS messages. USCIRF records that detention and his holding in Adiala Jail. In 2013 the U.S. State Department cited NGO allegations that Muslim guards poisoned and beat him there.
30 April 2022 August 2022 Zarvia Pervaiz, Rawalpindi
USCIRF reported that a young Christian girl was abducted and forced to convert to Islam and marry a much older Muslim man. In August 2022 the Rawalpindi Bench dismissed the family’s petition.
24 June 13 September 2024 Alina Khalid, Islamabad
HRCP reported that Alina disappeared from her Islamabad home. The family says she was abducted, raped, forcibly converted to Islam, and married. A conversion certificate and nikahnama were issued the next day. Official records showed she was underage. Police recovered her on 28 July and placed her in the Child Protection Unit. Further custody hearings followed. The writ petition was dismissed on 13 September 2024.
3 September 2026 Saba Mehboob, Dhoke Ratta, Rawalpindi
Muslim Adnan Butt and his companions forced their way into a Christian home, raped Saba Mehboob at gunpoint, shot her in the head and killed her, abducted her brother, and told the family they would kill him if the case was taken to the police.
These cases are not isolated. From the churchyard bombs of 2004 to the abduction of Christian girls in 2024 and 2026, false blasphemy accusations, abduction, forced conversion, rape, mob assault and murder have been used against Christians in Rawalpindi and Islamabad with near-total impunity. Many cases are never reported because families fear being killed.
Al-Qaeda’s Muslim terrorists found a safe haven in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. No terrorist is greater than Pakistan itself. Pakistan is the mother of al-Qaeda and of the jihad networks that grew from it. Pakistan remains the greatest threat to the Western world.
Conclusion: An Unbroken System of Islamic Impunity
In the shadow of GHQ, the grip of Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, more than a hundred Jaish and Lashkar terror madrasas, the preparation for a bloody revolution from Chakwal, the arrest of terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed on Nisar Road, Sheikh Rashid’s training centre, Mumtaz Qadri’s shrine in Bara Kahu, and the continuous attacks on Christian churches, children and girls are links in one Islamic chain. Until the jihadist networks, their financiers, their political and military patrons, the safe houses and official neglect are dismantled, the bloodshed and the fear of Christians will continue.
Wellington says
Perhaps Pope Leo should make a visit and preach his kumbaya Christianity to the multitude there. He could even be accompanied by representatives of several Protestant sects which have also embraced the kumbaya distortion of Christianity.
What a grand visit it would be. Who could doubt it?
Beans🫘 says
lol
He gets more donations if he trashes Israel though. If he stopped doing that, a shit load of people would pull back their donations.
There simply is no benefit for criticism of Pakistan. But supporting Palestine, he would be in line with most of his world congregation, and it keeps the money flowing. So it’s much safer in all cases to side with Muslims. I know I’m right.
A lot of stuff in this world, just follow the money. I was reading about how western women dump money on anything pro Palestine, it’s a boondoggle right now for Islamic scammers with these women, a lot of them have a bunch of money to spend. Give them a good Islamic sob story, and they’re in four figures.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Mr Faraz
Ain’t this true about all of Pakistan? Given that you have to date written similar essays about Lahore, Faisalabad, Bahawalpur, Sargodha and Gujranwala as well? At this rate, you can end up covering all of Pakistan
While you may not cover it, you’ll probably find the same is true about East Pakistan as well
somehistory says
‘Christian parents demand return of teenage son forcibly converted to Islam”
“In Pakistan’s Punjab province, the Christian parents of 15-year-old Sagar Masih are appealing for his return, saying he was pressured into converting to Islam at a factory job. A rights group says the case is one of a growing number of similar reports involving underage Christian boys in that country.agar’s parents believe factory co-workers pressured him to leave his Christian faith, adopt Muslim prayer practices and convert to Islam, sometimes offering him rewards. That’s according to a statement released by the United Kingdom-based Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS-UK), a Christian advocacy group.
“We are deeply concerned for Sagar’s safety and welfare. He is only 15 years old and must first and foremost be treated as a child in need of protection,” said CLAAS-UK Director Nasir Saeed. “Freedom of religion is a fundamental right, but religious freedom must genuinely be free. There can be no place for coercion, threats, inducements or exploitation of a child’s poverty and vulnerability.”
The family said Sagar came from a low-income Christian household and had taken the factory job to help support it. The family alleges the factory recorded Sagar’s name as “Sagar Muhammad,” even though his legal name is Sagar Masih.“We only want our child. We want our son returned to us and kept safe. We do not want anything else,” the boy’s father, Babar, told CLAAS-UK.
The family claims Sagar was required to pray in the Islamic style five times a day before converting, according to Worthy News.
Family members said they spent several days looking for Sagar before they found video footage of him with religious clerics and others. They then went to police, seeking his return and an explanation of the alleged conversion.
Police reportedly told the family Sagar had already become Muslim and that any recourse would go through the courts.
Sagar’s father said police gave the family contradictory details about the timing and process for his son’s return.
Family members allege Sagar told officers he wished to go back with them but was later pressured to stay away from relatives.
Officials eventually indicated a court would need to decide the matter, according to reports.
“We are particularly concerned about the growing number of cases involving underage Christian boys allegedly being converted to Islam,” Saeed said. “The issue of forced conversion is often associated with Christian girls, but boys can also be extremely vulnerable, particularly when poverty forces them into employment at a young age and places them under the influence of adults outside their families.”
Saeed urged authorities to confirm Sagar’s true age, look into whether he faced improper pressure and interview him somewhere safe, impartial and free of interested parties.
CLAAS-UK’s demands include an independent inquiry, confirmation of Sagar’s age and how the alleged conversion came about, safeguards for the teenager and court proceedings that put his welfare and best interests first.
Open Doors, a Christian advocacy group that ranks 50 countries each year by the severity of persecution Christians face, placed Pakistan eighth on its 2026 World Watch List.
Pakistani Christians face problems ranging from routine bias to the risk of lethal attacks, and blasphemy statutes have reportedly been used against Christians and other minority faiths, the group says.
Many Pakistani Christians hold poorly paid jobs, including at brick kilns and factories, where workers have reportedly faced discrimination, exploitation and pressure to give up their faith.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/christian-parents-demand-return-of-teenage-son-forcibly-converted-to-islam/ar-AA2crdkF?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=6aaca719d9c14f16af32305903835193&ei=34
common sense says
The fact that the USA and Britain continue to maintain military ties with fascist apartheid Pakistan is appalling.
The entire nexus of Pakistani military backed influence in western capitals should be exposed and thoroughly purged. The Pakistani military which backs jihadists and has committed crimes against humanity in Baluchistan Pakistan occupied Kashmir as well against Pashtuns should be grabbed and dragged to the Hague and tried for crimes against humanity
Kuffar says
Sounds like a good target for a W-88.