Home Critical Analysis/Archives Report on Punjab Disturbances of 1953

ARREST OF TWO AHRAR LEADERS

The Ahrar should have had little difficulty in realising that with the creation of Pakistan their past ideology had become obsolete and that there was no scope for their past activities in the new State, but the Ahrar are not made of that stuff, and seasoned agitators as they are, having had experience of championing and conducting many an agitation to enhance their popularity, they began to think of an outlet for their activities in their new surroundings. From exploiting an existing agitation there is only one step down to creating an agitation, and as will be presently shown, they adopted that tactics to justify their existence and to keep themselves alive as a party.

Before a year had passed after the establishment of Pakistan, Makhdum Shah Banauri, Secretary, Majlis-i-Ahrar-i-Pakistan, was arrested on, 15th July 1948, under section 3 of the Punjab Public Safety Act. The precise reasons for his arrest have not been brought out in the evidence, though it is stated that the ground for his arrest was the suspicion of his being engaged in some prejudicial activity. His arrest was followed by that of Sheikh Husam-ud-Din, another Ahrar leader, on 28th September 1948, under the same provision. They were both released after they had made long statements.

MURDER OF MAJOR MAHMUD

Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad was sojourning in Quetta, in the hot weather of 1948. While he was there, a young military officer, Major Mahmud, who was an Ahmadi, was murdered in a singularly brutal manner. The Muslim Railway Employees Association had organised a public meeting which was held on the evening of 11th August 1948. Some maulvis addressed the gathering and, the subject selected by each one of them for his speech was khatm-i-nubuwwat. In the course of these speeches, references were made to the Qadianis’ kufr and the  consequences thereof. While the meeting was still in progress, Major Mahmud, on his return from a visit to a patient, passed by the place where the meeting was being held. His car accidentally stopped near the place of the meeting and an effort to re-start it failed. Just then a mob came towards the car and pulled Major Mahmud out of it. He attempted to flee but was chased and literally stoned and stabbed to death, his entire gut having come out. The report of his post-mortem examination shows that he had as many as twenty-six injuries caused by blunt and sharp-edged weapons and that the death was due to shock and internal haemorrhage resulting from incised, wounds involving the left lung, left kidney and the right lobe of the liver. Nobody was willing to take credit for this act of Islamic heroism and out of a large number of persons who were eyewitnesses, none was able or willing to identify the ghazis who were authors of this brave deed. The culprits, therefore, remained unidentified and the case was filed untraced. The police record shows that the infuriated mob was frantically looking for men with short beards—Ahmadis it may be mentioned wear short beards—to kill them,

On coming to know of this gruesome murder the Intelligence Bureau of the Government of Pakistan by its letter No. 10/B/48-(6)-P., dated the 26th October 1948, to Mr. Zulqarnain Khan, Superintendent of Police (A), C. I. D., Punjab, Lahore, drew the attention of the Provincial authorities to the secret activities of Majlis-i-Ahrar which the Bureau considered to be prejudicial to the interests of Pakistan and, after stating that the pledges of loyalty to the State which had been given by top-ranking leaders of Majlis-i-Ahrar in their speeches and writings were mere eye wash, asked for the Provincial Government's considered opinion, for the information of the Central Government, whether the activities of the Ahrar necessitated some strong action against them at that moment. In reply Malik Habib Ullah by his letter No. 22451-BDSB, dated the 20th November 1948, explained in great detail the attitude of the Punjab C. I. D. towards the Ahrar. The reply reproduced the substance of the speech made by Abdur Rahman Mianvi at Chawinda in the district of Sialkot on 7th May 1948, in which he had accused the late Quaid-i-Azam for the Muslim genocide in East Punjab, and to the speech of Sahibzada Faiz-ul-Hasan at village Bhullar in the district of Sheikhupura, in which he had made some vulgar references to Begum Liaquat Ali Khan and other educated women who did not observe pardah; stated that the Ahrar had become more sober by the arrests of Makhdum Shah Banauri and Sheikh Husam-ud-Din, that Sayyad Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari and Master Taj-ud-Din were willing to extend their co-operation to the Government by reiterating their loyalty to Pakistan, that a very keen watch was being kept on the Ahrar and that when-ever their activities showed any signs of becoming prejudicial to the interests of the State, prompt action would be taken to disband them; and expressed the Punjab Government’s view that at that stage it was not advisable to take the drastic action of banning the Ahrar organisation.