A sole Shia home is target of social boycott after a mob attack in a village of Tehsil Shakargarh of district Narowal in Punjab.
While knocking down the constructed Alam-i-Ghazi Abbas, a fanatical crowd led by a local religious leader (Paish-Imam) destroyed the lone Shia Muslim home in the village of Mianwali Kunjrud in Narowal, a Punjab’s district in Pakistan1,2.
Muhammad Imran, s/o Basharat Ali Butt, resides in the Pakistani hamlet of Mianwali, which is a subdivision of Shakargarah in the district of Punjab. Mianwali is located on Kunjroad. In the mentioned village, his home is the lone Shia Muslim residence. He was recently the target of an anti-Shia mob in the village.
The local Masjid Israr’s Deobandi cleric Qari Faisal declared in his Friday sermon that Muhammad Imran son of Basharat Ali Butt, a Shia and an infidel, had incited the populace to set fire to his home and kill him.
Later, Muhammad Imran, the only Shia resident of the village, was attacked by Papu Butt, Ilyas Butt, Ihtsham Butt, Salman Butt, Mashkoor Butt, Nazir Chairman, Niyamat, Tariq Jat, and 15, 20, unidentified individuals. Alam on the roof was torn off, and he was forbidden from leaving the house and from purchasing goods from the shop.
“During a discussion, we informed District Police Officer DPO Narowal about the event. The sole Shia Muslim home in the village will receive complete protection, the DPO had promised us. However, neither the case was registered nor was Imran’s home granted police protection. Iman and his family are under serious threats of death, according to Syed Muntazir Mehdi Naqvi advocate, spokesperson of Shia Shahryan Pakistan, an organization of Shia Muslim in district Narowal.
Muhammad Imran, the head of the sole Shia Muslim household, wrote a letter to interim Punjab chief minister Mohsin Raza Naqvi.
Image of the letter written by the Shia victim
In the letter:
“I live in the Mianwali village in the Shakargarh Tehsil (district Narowal). I’m a worker. On June 2, 2023, I was at home around 1:30 PM when Paish Imam Masjid, the village mosque’s religious leader, declared that I, Muhammad Imran, belonged to the Shiite sect, a heretical sect that was shunned by Islam. He incited the populace to set fire to the applicant’s home and expel him from the community. On that day, the aforementioned suspects broke into the applicant’s home while yelling “Infidel, Infidel, Shia, Infidel.” An angry mob toppled the Alam Ghazi Abbas that had been placed on the applicant’s home’s roof. They damaged the Holy Quran that was stored next to the Alam. I am not permitted to leave my home and travel anywhere in the village, nor am I permitted to make any purchases from the home’s businesses. Even I am not given permission to obtain drinking water (from the only filtration plant in the village).”
References:
1- Alam Abbas is a flag based on a sacred religious symbol among Shia Muslims, which is raised on a roof or planted in courtyards of their houses. In Pakistan and India, various symbols serve as a reminder of the events that transpired in the Iraqi desert 14 centuries ago. Among the most potent symbols that have emerged to represent Karbala is the alam.
2- Read https://www.dawn.com/news/1360777
