Author:
Publications: The Navhind Times,
Panaji, Goa
Dated: March 1, 2001
Pakistan hanged an Islamic activist
on Wednesday for killing an lranian official in 1990, sparking sectarian
disturbances in which police said one man was killed.
Despite fears the execution could
trigger violence between rival Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim groups, Haq Nawaz,
Jhangvi was hanged at dawn in Mianwali Jail in the central province of
Punjab.
Police in the provincial capital
Lahore said clashes erupted between police and Sunni protesters when Jhangvi's
body arrived in his home city of Jhang for burial.
They said one man was killed in
the fighting, which involved teargas and live fire.
Police had detained hundreds of
Sunni activists before the execution in an effort to head off protests
and clashes between militants from the majority Sunni and the minority
Shi'ite sects of Islam. A last-minute request for a stay of execution was
rejected on Tuesday.
Jhangvi, a Sunni Muslim, was convicted
by an anti-terrorist court in 1991 of the December 19, 1990, murder of
Ardeshir Sadegh Ganji, director-general of an Iranian cultural centre in
Lahore.
Sunni groups accuse Shi'ite Iran
of financing Pakistani Shi'ite groups, who in turn accuse Sunni Saudi Arabia
of aiding their rivals. Both Iran and Saudi Arabia deny the accusations.
There has been a spate of sectarian
killings by Sunni and Shi'ite militants in Pakistan in recent months. Rivalry
between the two main branches of Islam dates from early in the history
of the religion.
Roads to Mianwali prison were blocked
by police on Wednesday and only about 10 supporters of Jhangvi managed
to approach the main gate where they stood shouting insults about Shi'ites.
A half-hour after the execution
Jhangvi's body was handed to relatives, who had been allowed into the prison,
and loaded into an ambulance driven by police.
The relatives were not allowed to
stop and talk with those outside the walls as the ambulance, escorted by
police, left the prison. Traffic was cleared from the road used by the
ambulance to take Jhangvi's body back for immediate burial in Jhang.
The Chief Justice of Lahore High
Court, Mr. Falak Sher, had refused to hear a petition seeking to delay
the hanging until the result was known of efforts to reach a compromise
between Jhangvi's family and that of the dead Iranian official, court sources
said.
They said Mr. Sher declined to hear
the petition from Jhangvi's brother on the grounds that, under law, it
should have been presented to the court that had originally tried Jhangvi.
Jhangvi's appeals against the conviction
were rejected by the provincial high court as well as the country's Supreme
Court and the President, Mr. Mohammad Rafiq Tarar recently turned down
a mercy petition from the condemned man.
Tension was reported high in Lahore,
with extra police on the streets. Promi nent Shi'ite officials were warned
by authorities to keep a low profile. A bomb in Lahore on Tuesday wounded
four people but it was not known if the blast was linked to Jhangvi's hanging.
