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Pamela Constable
Foreign correspondent covering Afghanistan, Pakistan, South Asia, Latin America and immigration
AKORA KHATTAK, Pakistan – Several thousand people rallied on Saturday near the Afghan border to mourn the death of 82-year-old Sami ul-Haq, leader of the Sunni clergy and so-called "father of the Taliban", stabbed to death by unknown assailants.
Officials and religious leaders from across the ideological spectrum in Pakistan and Afghanistan joined students from the renowned Akora Khattak seminary, where Haq taught and mentored two generations of Afghan Islamist fighters.
A delegation of Afghan leaders came to pay tribute to Haq, who was recently asked by the Kabul government to help persuade Taliban insurgent leaders to begin negotiations to end the 17-year war.
Pakistanis belonging to banned religious groups hid behind turbans.
The mysterious killing of Haq on Friday was a shock for the country. It erupted over several days of violent demonstrations in the country of moderate Sunni groups in Pakistan, enraged by the acquittal by the Supreme Court of a Christian woman convicted of blasphemy.
The funeral was a break from the turmoil of the nation and a tribute to Haq's multiple influence on the country.
People mourning at the funeral of Muslim monk Sami ul-Haq in Akora Khattak, Pakistan, November 3, 2018. (Faisal Mahmood / Reuters)
It was a radical Islamist scholar – often called by the title of respect, maulana. But he was also a respected political leader and legislator, as well as a humanitarian who issued a religious fatwa condemning Islamist militants for attacking health workers distributing the polio vaccine.
[[[[Look: Pakistan's prey to agitation and demonstrations]
"We are all shocked, but also happy, because our respected maulana has become a martyr at this advanced stage of life," said a teenage seminary student, Ikram Abbasi, who has traveled for hours on a bus with a group classmates to attend the service. . "He is a great leader and a martyr of Islam".
In the capital, Islamabad, and in other cities, calm returned on Saturday after anti-blasphemy groups canceled four days of massive street protests. Their leaders claimed to be non-violent lovers of the Prophet Muhammad, but they urged angry crowds to block highways, light fires and throw stones. Some have called for a military mutiny and the death of judges who canceled Wednesday the conviction for blasphemy against Asia Bibi after nine years in prison.
The Pakistani government has paid a heavy price to achieve this calm, accepting most protesters' demands after hours of negotiations on Friday night.
The signed agreement, made public immediately, allowed the anti-blasphemy groups to appeal the Supreme Court's decision. He also agreed that Bibi, whose protesters want death, will not be allowed to leave the country.
The stupefying capitulation has aroused widespread condemnation. Many observers have described it as dangerous surrender to forces of religious extremism and hatred against minorities, often accused of blasphemy against Islam.
Bibi, a 47-year-old farmer, was sentenced after an argument with Muslim colleagues in a field. The High Court found that the prosecution evidence was thin and contradictory, but it did not criticize or challenge the strict blasphemy laws and the mandatory death penalty for convicted blasphemers.
Faisal Siddiqi, a Dawn lawyer, said the court's decision set the tone for a much larger existential problem facing the country: is Pakistan becoming a theocratic state in which vigilantism prevails there? " "Decisive moment" that will allow the majority Muslim country to become a "modern constitutional state".
Many people congratulated Pakistan's new Prime Minister Imran Khan after issuing a stern warning to protesters in a televised speech on Wednesday night.
Khan described their aggressive behavior and their threats as "deplorable", claiming that they were "not acting" in the service of Islam, "and asked them not to run afoul of the laws of Islam. 39, a democratic state.
But on Saturday, while Khan was heading to China, critics were disappointed that his resolution had collapsed and said it would strengthen the movement of a radical religious movement that garnered the support of millions of Sunni Muslims.
Some warned that Bibi's life was not safe in Pakistan, where people accused of blasphemy are often lynched. His lawyer fled the country on Saturday, claiming he had received death threats. The judges who liberated Bibi have been threatened in their lives, so another higher court that hears the protesters' call may also feel in jeopardy.
"The borders of hatred have continued to spread in Pakistan without reluctance on the part of the state or society," Babar Sattar, a lawyer in Islamabad, wrote in The News International newspaper on Saturday. "Clerics see this verdict as an interference of the state in their exclusive domain."
Constable reported from Islamabad.
Read more:
Christians threatened in Pakistan
Opinion: Who's afraid of Imran Khan? Almost everybody.
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