Azam Tariq (religious leader)

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Pakistani English Template:Infobox politician Azam Tariq (Template:Langx 10 July 1962 – 6 October 2003) was a Pakistani politician and Islamic scholar who was the leader of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). He was assassinated in 2003.

Early life and education

Azam Tariq was born on 10 July 1962 into a Punjabi Rajput farmer family to Mohammad Fateh in Chichawatni, their family roots lying in the Kalyan village of the Patiala district, now in Indian Punjab, from where they moved due to the 1947 partition.

He studied at a local madrassa and then enrolled in the Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia in Banuri Town, Karachi.

Like most madrassa students and graduates at that time, he participated in the Soviet-Afghan jihad, and when he returned, while he was the imam of the Masjid-e-Siddiq-e-Akbar in North Karachi he formed the basis of the future SSP.

Arrest

In August 2001, Tariq was arrested and jailed on charges of terrorism.

Career

Tariq was elected three times to the National Assembly of Pakistan in Jhang Sadr, even though his constituency was a predominantly Shi'a region. He contested again in the 2002 elections while in custody and was again elected. He was released in November 2002.

Death

Tariq was shot and killed in an attack on 6 October 2003 alongside Islamabad as he left the M-2 Motorway to enter the city. his funeral was led by Abdul Rashid Ghazi inside Lal Masjid.

The assassination was part of a growing wave of violent incidents in Pakistan between the sectarian Deobandi Wahhabi and the Shiah Muslims. Violence peaked in July 2003 with the Quetta mosque attack and the massacre of more than 50 people.

On 11 May 2017, 13 years after Tariq's assassination, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested a suspect in his murder.

Bibliography

Books by Tariq

• Rūdād-i ʻIshq O Vafā, Jhang : Markazī Daftar-i Sipāh-i Ṣaḥābah, 1999-2004, around 1000 pages (in 2 volumes). Author's memoirs.
• Ahammīyat-i Hadīs̲ Dar Dīn, Kābul : Mayvand; Peshawar : Kitābkhānah-ʼi Sabā, 2005, 298 p. Importance of Hadith for Islam, in Persian.
• K̲h̲ut̤bāt-i Jarnail, al-Maʻrūf, K̲h̲ut̤bāt-i Jel, Jhang : Markazī Daftar-i Sipāh-i Ṣaḥābah, 2001. Collection of speeches written in jail (1998-1999) collected by Abū Usāmah Z̤iyāurraḥmān Nāṣir.

Books about Tariq

• Muḥammad Nadīm Qāsimī, Ḥayāt-i Aʻẓam T̤āriq, Faiṣalābād : Ishāʻatulmaʻārif, 1998, 413 p.
• Muḥammad Nadīm Muʻāviyah, Pārlīmanṭ Kā Londa : S̲ānī-i Jarnail-i Sipāh-yi Ṣaḥābah ... Ḥaz̤rat Maulānā Muḥammad Aʻẓam T̤āriq Shahīd Ke Mufaṣṣal Hālāt-i Zindagī Aur Pārlīmant Kī Taqārīr, Karāchī : Maktabah-yi K̲h̲ilāfat-i Rāshidah, 2005, 376 p.

See more

• List of Deobandis

External links

• Shia News: a partisan account of Azam Tariq's release in 2001, with a background of the history of Sunni-Shia violence in Pakistan
• Pakistan Daily Times 7 October 2004
• Shia News report of Azam Tariq's assassination
• An Eye for an Eye? Azam Tariq's assassination news by Newsline (Pakistan).