Curfew imposed in Rawalpindi as violence claims eight lives

Agencies Published November 15, 2013

RAWALPINDI: A curfew was imposed in Rawalpindi on Friday after eight people were killed and a market was burnt in a clash between two groups in relation to the harassment of an Ashura procession in Rawalpindi's Raja Bazar area, DawnNews reported.

The curfew was imposed in the city keeping in view the tense situation, a spokesman for the Punjab government was quoted by TV news channels as saying.

Authorities also decided that mobile phone services would remain suspended in the city until Sunday.

The Jaffria Alliance condemned the violence in Rawalpindi and demanded from the provincial government to bring to justice those who had resorted to gunfire.

A cloth market situated in Rawalpindi's Raja Bazaar was set on fire by unknown persons while members of rival groups resorted to stone-pelting and firing.

“The clashes started when a sermon was being delivered from a mosque which was on the procession route,” Waseem Ahmed, a police official told AFP.

The clash triggered a stampede in the procession which caused more casualties.

“The death toll from the clashes has reached to eight people and 44 others are injured,” Qasim Khan, a doctor at Rawalpindi's district hospital, told AFP.

“Among 44 wounded people brought to our hospital, 13 had gunshot wounds,” Khan said.

He said five wounded people were shifted to another hospital.

The violence prompted Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to take notice of the incident and also seek a report from officials.

Police officer Afzal Hussain told AP earlier that participants of a procession beat to death three men from a seminary in Rawalpindi for insulting them as their procession passed the religious school.

The procession members dragged the harassers out of the seminary after hearing the shouted insults and beat them to death, Hussain said.

They also set several shops outside the seminary on fire, he said.

Police tried to stop the clash, but officers were wounded as the two sides threw stones at each other, Hussain said.

All fire brigades in the city were deployed to put out the fire.

An army unit based in Rawalpindi was called in which eventually reached the scene and took control of the situation.

Ashura observed in Pakistan, cellphone services resumption begins

Blast near Imambargah in Karachi injures one

Viewer

Nov 15, 2013 10:06pm

Resorting to abusive language and slogans by both segments is the root cause of many differences and majority of highly deplorable incidents; rest being committed by sponsored agents taking advantage of extremism and insane attitude of both segments. Why not a comparatively rush-free and isolated route was suggested by the authorities for the procession? Why not the external loud-speakers of the seminary were made silent?

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Shahpur

Nov 15, 2013 10:48pm

There is now a civil sectarian war in Pakistan, like many other Muslin countries. Who is the beneficiary of this old wound of the Islamic Countries. Something that people should think about it.

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Ashar

Nov 15, 2013 11:32pm

Is this what Muhammad (PBUH) and Ali (RA) taught us?? Both sides should drown in shame and take a deep look at their prophets teachings and their sunnah and what would they have done. When the old lady who used to throw trach and dirt on Muhammad got sick, he went and asked for her and prayed that she gets well soon and she became a Muslim. When a kafir spit on Hazrat Ali's face during a battle while Hazrat Ali had him pinned down he stopped and let him go and said if I kill you now, I will do it because of my own anger and not because of Allah's relegion.....and here we are, teaching our students in a Madersah all the Quran while they are abusing the prosession and the people in the Ashura prosession go and beat to death the 3 boys.....what a shame for both the Shia's and the Sunni's!!!

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Nov 15, 2013 11:54pm

"The procession members dragged the harassers out of the seminary after hearing the shouted insults and beat them to death, Hussain said." If this story is indeed true, these culprits should be brought to justice ASAP. Loss of innocent life should not be tolerated at any cost. I'm not justifyign their actions of insulting the procession (if this is true), but taking law into their own hands and KILLING these people is simply barbaric.

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IKE Khan

Nov 16, 2013 12:02am

Give us full news not pieces and bits. Dawn and its reporters have habit of omitting important pieces, like the location and names of places. You call this journalism? Send your reporters back to school to learn 101 in reporting. Also, this half news will cause people to seek missing information form other sources, other news sources.

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Wilma Canla

Nov 16, 2013 12:05am

Muslims kiling muslims, the religion of peace at work, so what else is new?

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Imran Ahmed

Nov 16, 2013 12:14am

It seems to be the favourite pastime of many people to ridicule or harrass others with different beliefs, attire, language or physical shape. Have these people not been taught better by their parents? What a wanton waste of young lives who could have contributed so much to their families and their country. If our religious "experts" will not do this each one of us must preach tolerance and good manners to others no matter how different or strange they seem to us.

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Gerry D'Cunha

Nov 16, 2013 12:21am

i remember as a child in 1960s to stand and watch the Ashura procession near the empress market in karachi, there was no restrictions then - whats gone wrong with the muslim society of today?

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Fareed

Nov 16, 2013 12:54am

This country does not need enemy from outside - it is destroying itself from within.

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Tauseef Ahmed

Nov 16, 2013 12:53am

One of my friend was there as he told me that this was not a sunni mosque as stated in media and it was a deobandi mosque, the imam masjid used some bad language against mourners on speaker upon which people inside mosque raised some slogans against mourners which infuriated the mourners. A clash errupted and some people above masjid pelted stones which makes the situation worse after that the youngsters of both side clashed with each other..but there were some outsiders whom started the fire from the back when two groups clashed each other.

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NKhan

Nov 16, 2013 01:03am

How a nation can progress when the jiyalas of this nation has no respect ad tolerance for each other. So much hatred that you kill one of your own brother! we are turning into something worst than animals as even animals have unity among their ranks

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The Guy

Nov 16, 2013 01:21am

Aliens must have done this, or some agent .. Pakistanis can never do this..Pakistanis are angels..its probably India..I think its Malala's people..

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Masud

Nov 16, 2013 01:24am

All types of procession on public streets should banned whether sunii or shia or any other group. You want to do Milad/Ashura etc rent a place and do whatever you want inside that premises not on the public street.

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Yafis

Nov 16, 2013 01:44am

Dear All one of my relative told me that media's coverage is abandoned there....more than 200 people under the demolished building a group of men torched the building and surrounding cloth market with the help of petrol and they brutally murdered students and teachers of the said madarsa, of student had 70 bullets many of them burnt alive....COULD ANY MEDIA GROUP REVEAL THE TRUE STORY TO THE WORLD? NEVER????

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Yasmin Elahi

Nov 16, 2013 01:58am

The nation is saddened by the totally senseless and very tragic loss of precious lives and property! We Pakistanis must learn to co exist peacefully and respect each other's views! Sanity and Tolerance is the crying need of the hour.

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Jay

Nov 16, 2013 03:17am

I am 50 years old. I see that in recent years the Ashura processions are becoming quite a show. I bet that no other nation are staging and acting in Ashura procession like we do. Our society is going towards dark ages and level of tolerance is going down day by day. The rest of the world is making fun of us. There is no one in the 180 million nation "crowd" who can stop all this non-sense and madness.

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Nov 16, 2013 06:00am

It is just a matter of time an majority of population of Pakistan will support a ban on ALL religions...period.!!! just like China and Russia did a few decades ago.

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Munir Ahmed

Nov 16, 2013 08:33am

One of my friend who is a trader there told that it was administration failure, as the govt always managed that masjid in past but now the loud speaker was in full voice and the imam masjid was making sectarian slogans. Upon stopping them they started pelting stones from above which infuriated general public. Traders are in anger over govt failure and while there was this process going on some suspicious pashtoons lit the fire in the market from back side which engulfed the whole area

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Rabia Shoaib

Nov 16, 2013 09:16am

By resorting to violence of this degree, we are surely not pleasing our Allah, His Prophet SAW and Islam. If we, as muslims, can not live in peace, I wonder how the non-muslims percieve us as? What happened yesterday brought pain and killed muslims ( human beings). This blood letting in the name of Islam must be stopped. Is anyone in the government paying heed??

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Muhammad Imran

Nov 16, 2013 09:46am

This kind of violence is highly condemnable and shoudl be avoided.

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Nov 16, 2013 09:56am

There should be a school and college curriculum regarding religious tolerance,anger management and accepting other people's right practice their own religion.

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Immad

Nov 16, 2013 10:10am

Why was the seminary in the route of the procession was delivering hatred ridden messages? The name of the mosque, its clerics and its sect should be made public

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Zia

Nov 16, 2013 10:32am

My request to fellow countrymen...please show religious harmony and save the country from bloodshed...Long Live Pakistan....

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N K Ali

Nov 16, 2013 10:41am

Even after the passage of 1435 years we are fighting about our religious identity. It was no business for the seminary boys to hurl abuses at the procession that was passing peacefully. We have to thank our so-called and self-acclaimed champions of the faith and weak leadership for the mess we are in today. Leaving the Muslim world aside, the question arises why are we so *confused* and *intolerant* of another's belief? We do not have to blame anyone except ourselves for our deconstructed humanity. Salams

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syed imtiaz ahmed

Nov 16, 2013 10:54am

curfew is not solution

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Mansoor Khan

Nov 16, 2013 11:53am

Give what ever reason you want, to me this is simply religiosity gone wild in the society. M Khan

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Abrar

Nov 16, 2013 06:49pm

@Jay: why are processions taken out? One wants to mourn the SHAHADAT then do it indoor and read noble Qur'an, pay nawafil and observe fasting. No need to make commercialize the sad occasion and cause problem for administration and traffic. Time has changed and we must not follow the old wrong traditions

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riaz bhatti

Nov 16, 2013 08:04pm

this voilance is like all the muslim world iraq labia egypt syria . there is no amrican army in iraq but there are daily blast.this all is going to be start here.

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mas

Nov 16, 2013 10:00pm

Due to mounting security concerns and prevailing intolerance in our society the Government must ban, atleast for 10 years all religious processions be it sunni , shia etc. This country cannot afford to spend Billions on providing security for such processions with the risk of massive violence in the event of any mishap . See what happened in Karachi . Common business people suffered losses again the traders of Raja bazar are in the receiving end. All these procession do not have any religious siginificance and are part of cultural activities restricted to South Asia .

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salman

Nov 16, 2013 10:09pm

@N K Ali: it was wrong for the seminary boys to insult the Shias, especially since it is against Islamic teachings to insult ANYBODY but murdering someone for insulting is past any tolerance. They should have been punished in a way that they would not forget their lesson but beating them to death takes away my sympathies for those insulted. Seminary elders shout strongly condemn and discourage insulting other religions and sects at the same time the murderers should be arrested and punished. Murder should not be taken lightly at all. And no one should be given a free hand when it comes to murder. A procession that ends in killing CANNOT be called peaceful. Please be objective and weigh the crime against the punishment. Many shias lives maybe saved and further racial divide prevented if the murderers are handed over to the authorities by the Shias themselves. I pray people come to their senses and this country is saved.

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salman

Nov 16, 2013 10:20pm

@Immad: Name of the mosque and cleric should be made public and names of the murderers too. Infact all involved should be arrested and tried and punished according to the crimes commited.

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salman

Nov 16, 2013 10:22pm

@Munir Ahmed: Classic example of divide and rule. They engaged us while the enemy agents took advantage and lit fires and broke into store and committed crimes that we shall very well suffer for.

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salman

Nov 16, 2013 10:29pm

@Ashar: Well said. Truth is both Shia and Sunni leaders have been systematically assassinated during the past 30 years by the powers that want us weak and divided. People like Malik murtaza espoused peace and unity and he was murdered even though he took no active part in any politics. Today the loss of such leaders is felt heartfully. Those leaders not only had real knowledge of Islam and saw through the enemies plot to weaken Islam through mutual hatred and violence. We need to come out and denounce this plot, denounce this violence for what it is.

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Atique

Nov 16, 2013 10:58pm

Culprits must be caught and given death sentences to stop this happening again.

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Maulik

Nov 17, 2013 01:52am

@GM: Dream on!!!!

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kublai

Nov 17, 2013 02:31am

Where is the lion of Punjab? He is never around in time of need.