Abdul Rashid Ghazi

Abdul Rashid Ghazi (c. 29 January 1964 – 10 July 2007) was a Pakistani Islamic scholar and diplomat-turned Islamist dissident who served as Khatib of Lal Masjid, the Chief Executive of Jamia Faridia University, the Chairman of Defense of Human Rights Pakistan (DHR), a member of UNICEF Committee on preventive healthcare and a leader of Difa-e-Pakistan Council. Prior to this he had worked for the Mi...

Abdul Rashid Ghazi (c. 29 January 1964 – 10 July 2007) was a Pakistani Islamic scholar and diplomat-turned Islamist dissident who served as Khatib of Lal Masjid, the Chief Executive of Jamia Faridia University, the Chairman of Defense of Human Rights Pakistan (DHR), a member of UNICEF Committee on preventive healthcare and a leader of Difa-e-Pakistan Council. Prior to this he had worked for the Ministry of Education and was a diplomat affiliated with UNESCO, a specialized agency of the United Nations. He was the son of Muhammad Abdullah Ghazi, and younger brother of Abdul Aziz Ghazi. Abdul Rashid was assassinated on 10 July 2007 during Operation Sunrise after Pakistan Army Special Service Group stormed the Lal Masjid in Islamabad. In February 2016, Islamabad High Court issued an arrest warrants for Pervez Musharraf and several other high-ranking officials for their role in the targeted killing of Ghazi and sought a Red Notice from Interpol. The Supreme Court of Pakistan also ruled that the killing was an extrajudicial assassination. Early life and education Abdul Rashid Ghazi was born on 29 January 1964 in the town of Basti Abdullah near Rojhan in Rajanpur, the border district of Punjab province of Pakistan. He hailed from an ethnic Baloch family belonging to the Sodwani clan of the Mazari tribe. Ghazi was fluent in his native Balochi, Saraiki, Urdu, Persian, English and Arabic. He generally used to communicate in Balochi with his family and the tribals of his area. 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 Master of Science degree in history from Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad in 1987–1988. A photo of him and his classmates still hangs on the history department's wall. According to one of his professors, "He was a normal, modern student and a lively fellow who was well adjusted to a co-educational system." Remembered by his friends as "a bright student and an active member of a progressive student organization", "He could have been a ambassador 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, "his greatest ambition was to become a diplomat at the United Nations", a friend added, to the extent that he stopped talking to his father, who was antagonized by his "Westernized" lifestyle. Declan Walsh also quotes peoples who knew him during this time, saying that he was a secularized student reading the likes of Nietzsche and Rousseau, mingling with women and being fond of singing. Professional career Civil service career Having completed his M.Sc. in History, he secured a position at the Pakistan National Commission and later joined the Ministry of Education in Islamabad as a Grade-17 officer, where he briefly served as the editor of its monthly magazine, Piyami. Diplomatic career He subsequently joined the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN). He initially served at UNESCO's National Office in Islamabad, Later, he was briefly transferred to the organization's Regional Bureau for Education in Asia, located in Thailand. In his later career, he was stationed at the Maison de l'UNESCO in Paris, France, serving as a Representative and Diplomat. He was also as a member of the Pakistani Delegation to UNESCO linked with Embassy of Pakistan in Paris. Visits to Afghanistan Soviet–Afghan War In 1988, Ghazi was convinced by his brother, Abdul Aziz, an active participant in the Soviet–Afghan War, to travel with him to Afghanistan's Paktia Province. The brothers subsequently saw brief combat service in the region. According to a contemporary account from a fellow fighter, they engaged in several skirmishes with Soviet forces near the Afghanistan–Pakistan border. In one incident, Ghazi narrowly survived a land mine explosion, after which he adopted the honorific title Ghazi (Arabic: "warrior"). Journalist Declan Walsh cites a companion of Ghazi who stated that he was primarily motivated by the excitement and adventure of war rather than religious ideology and notes that this attitude was not uncommon among young men joining the anti-Soviet resistance. Kandahar meeting In 1997, Ghazi traveled to Kandahar with his father and a delegation of religious scholars, where they met with Taliban leader Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden. Ghazi, when referring to these events, stated: "The meeting inspired me to work for the establishment of Islamic state." He recalled that at the end of the meeting, he picked up and drank water from a cup which bin Laden had used. An amused bin Laden asked Ghazi why he had done so, to which Ghazi replied: "I drank from your glass so that Allah would make me a great warrior like you". Assassination of his father In October 1998, Ghazi's father was assassinated in the courtyard of Lal Masjid as he returning from teaching a class at Jamia Faridia. Due to a lack of confidence in Pakistan's legal system, Abdul Aziz, the elder brother of Ghazi, initially declined to file a First Information Report (FIR). However, Ghazi proceeded to file the FIR, prompting a police investigation into the case. After persistent efforts, a suspect was arrested and subsequently identified by an eyewitness during an identification parade. Despite this, the suspect was inexplicably released the following day. Ghazi protested the release, warning the authorities that he would pursue legal action if the suspect was not promptly re-arrested. As pressure mounted, he reportedly faced threats, including a warning to withdraw the case or risk suffering a fate similar to that of his father. According to those close to him, this experience marked a turning point in his life, leading to his disillusionment with the legal system. Post-2001 activities Ghazi adopted the trappings of an Islamist, wearing a pakol (wool hat) and a checkered Palestinian keffiyeh over white robes, and was appointed as the Khatib of Lal Masjid, Ghazi however still retained the courteous manner and open-minded curiosity of his student years and was known to welcome foreign visitors at his quarters, charming and cajoling them. Ghazi maintained associations with a range of militant and political figures. Among his militant contacts were Fazlur Rehman Khalil of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and Masood Azhar of Jaish-e-Mohammed; Azhar also made a rare public appearance to meet Ghazi at Lal Masjid in 2002. Ghazi was also allied with leaders of Sipah-e-Sahaba, including Azam Tariq and Ali Sher Hyderi. After Tariq's assassination in 2003, Ghazi led his funeral prayers at Lal Masjid. Politically, Ghazi's allies included prominent religious leaders such as Qazi Hussain Ahmad of Jamaat-e-Islami, Fazal-ur-Rehman of the JUI-F, Samiul Haq of the JUI-S, Shah Abdul Aziz and Syed Nasib Ali Shah. Difa-e-Pakistan Council In 2001, when the country's religious parties formed a coalition known as Pakistan-Afghanistan Defense Council to protest the war in Afghanistan, Ghazi emerged as a central figure in the movement. He played a key role in organizing demonstrations across Islamabad and was appointed as the coalition's chief spokesperson and later as the coalition's regional chairman. On 7 October 2001, in response to the United States invasion of Afghanistan, Ghazi addressed the press. He stated, "… As we announced earlier, we will issue a call for Jihad (holy war) against the United States… We have already demanded that the U.S. present evidence to the world if Osama bin Laden was involved in the recent acts of terrorism in New York and Washington. Instead, the United States, claiming to be a superpower, took unilateral action…" In the months following the invasion, Ghazi led several rallies alongside Munawar Hassan and contended that no country could successfully invade Afghanistan, noting the past defeats of Britain and Russia. He warned that the U.S. was making a "similar mistake" and would meet a "similar fate." In 2003, Ghazi would later also lead protests against the Invasion of Iraq. In 2006, Ghazi also led protests against Pope Benedict XVI's Regensburg lecture. 2001 Arrest and Release On 23 December 2001, Ghazi was arrested from Aabpara in Islamabad. The arrest followed a public speech in which he criticized President Pervez Musharraf for Pakistan's involvement in the War in Afghanistan and for supporting the U.S.-led invasion. On 29 December 2001, the PADC organized a protest demonstration in front of Lal Masjid against the detention of Ghazi. Participants, carrying placards and banners, chanted slogans condemning the government's policies. They demanded the immediate release of Ghazi, and warned that PADC would escalate its actions with protest rallies across the twin cities. Following his release in January 2002, Ghazi claimed that he was a prisoner of conscience, denying any involvement in violence and asserting that his activism was purely peaceful. He was quoted as saying, "I have not blasted a bomb anywhere, I have not killed anyone and all my demonstrations were peaceful... I just have a difference of opinion, which should not be a problem for anyone. I call this a kind of dictatorship." He also publicly criticized the Pakistani government's ban on jihadist groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, and questioned the rationale for banning religious organizations like the Sipah-e-Sahaba (SSP). He stated that if any madrassa were proven to be involved in terrorism, all "peace-loving religious sects" and madrassa administrations would sever ties with those entities. Defense of human rights Ghazi and his close associate Khalid Khawaja were prominent activists involved in various social causes, including addressing enforced disappearances in Pakistan. In 2002, they co-founded the human rights group Defense of Human Rights (Urdu: تحفظ حقوق إنساني). Ghazi served as the organization's first chairman while Khawaja was its spokesman. The organization became involved in recovery case of the alleged child abduction victim Molly Campbell, providing her shelter at the Jamia Hafsa during her parental custody trial. Jamia Faridia Ghazi also served as Chief Executive (Rector/President) of Faridia University, an Islamic university situated near the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan. he is credited with modernization of the institute where alongside the traditional Dars-i Nizami, he introduced new academic programmes including information technology, Islamic Economics and himself taught English and Philosophy. In 2002, Ghazi extended an invitation to Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan to attend the Khatam-e-Bukhari ceremony at his seminary, Jamia Faridia. Subsequently, Khan also generously supported the construction of a park adjacent to the seminary and facilitated the creation of a forest pedestrian path leading from the seminary to Faisal Mosque, which was named in his honor. In 2003, he inaugurated the Al Faridia Model School, a free for all high school offering classes from 7th till matriculation. Farid Esack recounts to have met Ghazi multiple times at the Faridia University seminary, Ghazi peppered the South African with questions about Nelson Mandela's life in prison, and they chatted for hours about revolutionaries like Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. "He certainly saw himself in that mold, as the righteous moral rebel." Esack said, both of them are also said to have debated their conflicting opinions on Islam, "My vision of an inclusive polity influenced by progressive Islamic values is very different than Ghazi's, of course, but his theology should not be reduced to a caricature, as it so often was, especially in the West", Esack recounted. In 2005, Ghazi attended the graduation ceremony at Darul Uloom Karachi as a guest speaker. During this event, he met