Riaz Basra
Born1967
Sargodha, Pakistan
Died14 May 2002 (aged 34–35)
Dokota, Vehari district, Pakistan
Buried
Khurhseed,[1] Sargodha
Allegiance Sipah-e-Sahaba
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi

Riaz Basra (1967 – 14 May 2002) was a Pakistani militant leader and founder of the militant organization Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which he founded alongside Malik Ishaq and Akram Lahori, in 1996.[2][3]

Early life and career

Riaz Basra was born to Ghulam Muhammad and Jalal Bibi in Chak Chah Thandiwala, Sargodha, in 1967. He studied at madrassas in Lahore and Sargodha before joining the political party Sipah-e-Sahaba in 1985. Basra allegedly fought in the Soviet-Afghan War on the side of the mujahideen, receiving a bullet wound in the leg.[4]

Among his objectives was the establishment of a Sunni Islamic Emirate in Pakistan and the declaration of Shias as non-Muslims. In 1988, he had also tried his luck, unsuccessfully, for an assembly seat from Lahore, Punjab.[5] Contesting against Nawaz Sharif and winning 9,000 votes, the same year he was also made the central-secretary (broadcast and publications) of the SSP.[6]

Basra was alleged to be involved in killings and assassinations of hundreds of Shias in Pakistan. These included the killings of Shia doctors, policemen, lawyers, and the assassination of an Iranian diplomat Sadiq Ganji in 1990 and another assassination of a Shia leader, Syed Sikandar Shah, and a deadly attack on a gathering at a Shia cemetery in 1998, in an assassination attempt on Nawaz Sharif in 1999, besides being accused of several bank heists. He was arrested in 1992 and sentenced to death for killing Ganji, but escaped from prison in 1994.[7][8][9] Basra was also alleged to be involved in several other assassinations such as the assassinations of the leader of Imamia Students Organization, Dr Muhammad Ali Naqvi in 1995,[8] Sargodha commissioner Syed Tajammal Abbas in 1996,[4] and Gujranwala SSP Muhammad Ashraf Marth in 1997.[10]

In 1996, Basra broke away from Sipah-e-Sahaba to form his own anti-Shia organization Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. The organization takes its name from the deceased founder of Sipah-e-Sahaba, Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, who was killed in a bomb attack by unknown assailants believed to be sponsored by a Shia group on 23 February 1990.[11]

On one occasion, Basra is believed to have coerced the Punjab Chief Minister into easing police pressure on his group. He had demonstrated his ability to penetrate the CM's security by having himself photographed with the CM without his knowledge.[12] On another occasion, he had got himself photographed with Nawaz Sharif in a similar fashion, and sent the photo to Sharif's office.[13]

Death

Basra had a bounty of 5 million rupees on his head and he was eventually killed, reportedly in a shootout in May 2002, in Kot Choudhary Sher Muhammad Ghalvi, Dokota, a Shia village in Vehari district, Punjab. There were several doubts expressed about his death because the Sargodha police had already claimed to have killed him in 1999 and the Punjab police had claimed to have killed him on six occasions.[4][7][9][14] Basra and three other Lashkar-e-Jhangvi members had come to stage an attack on Choudhary Fida Hussain Ghalvi, a prominent Shia leader, but were met with armed resistance by local villagers. According to one report, a special police brigade arrived to support a half-hour later, ending the fight, during which all four Lashkar-e-Jhangvi members were killed.[9][15] Doubts have been expressed about this version of events because Basra was reported to be in police custody at the time of this shootout[1][15][16][17] and hardly anyone believes this account to be true.[18][19] However, Pakistan's then Information Minister Nisar Memon denied any foul-play.[20] It is alleged he was killed by Shia fighters seeking to take matters into their own hands after police incompetence.

Basra was buried in his home village of Khurhseed, near Jhawarian outside of Sargodha. His funeral was attended by 20,000 people; though police presence prevented the SSP, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi leadership and thousands of people from participating, and Basra's body was wrapped in the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi flag.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Correspondent (17 May 2002). "Riaz Basra buried in Sargodha". Dawn. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
  2. ↑ C. Christine Fair; Peter Chalk (2006). Fortifying Pakistan: The Role of U.s. Internal Security Assistance. US Institute of Peace Press. pp. 26–. ISBN 978-1-929223-88-6. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  3. ↑ "KARACHI: List of cases against Akram Lahori released". Dawn. 2 July 2002. Retrieved 19 June 2013. The police has released a list of some 33 cases registered against Mohammad Ajmal alias Akram Lahori in different police stations of the city.
  4. 1 2 3 Shamsul Islam Naz Basra encounter: a poorly staged drama Dawn (Pakistan), 17 May 2002
  5. ↑ Zahid Hussain (1 July 2008). Frontline Pakistan: The Struggle With Militant Islam. Columbia University Press. pp. 94–. ISBN 978-0-231-14225-0. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  6. ↑ Muḥammad ʻĀmir Rānā, A to Z of Jehadi Organizations in Pakistan, Mashal Books, 2004, p. 207
  7. 1 2 "World: South Asia Pakistani police shoot wrong man". BBC. 7 April 1999. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
  8. 1 2 "Riaz Basra's career". Dawn. 15 May 2002. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  9. 1 2 3 Howard D. French For Militant, No Glorified End, but Death in the Dust New York Times, 19 May 2002
  10. ↑ "Witnesses retract statements: Four acquitted of killing SSP Marth, his driver". Dawn. 21 May 2010. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  11. ↑ Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, Terrorist Group of Pakistan South Asian Terrorism Portal.
  12. ↑ "Pakistan kills a master terrorist". United Press International. 14 May 2002.
  13. ↑ Jones, Owen Bennett (2002). Pakistan: Eye of the Storm (PDF). Yale University Press. p. 23. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 November 2012. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
  14. ↑ Police kill Pakistan's most wanted man BBC News, 14 May 2002
  15. 1 2 "Riaz Basra, 3 others die in 'encounter'". Dawn. 15 May 2002. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  16. ↑ McCarthy, Rory (17 May 2002). "Death by design". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  17. ↑ "Lashkar chief Riaz Basra 'arrested'". Dawn. 22 January 2002. Retrieved 17 June 2013. FAISALABAD, Jan 21: A local police team on Monday claimed to have arrested Riaz Basra, involved in a series of sectarian killings, and took him to an unknown place for interrogation.
  18. ↑ "The man who chose to live by the sword". Dawn. 19 May 2002. Retrieved 19 June 2013. Still, the official version — that he died in a shootout with the police and villagers — was disbelieved, almost universally. There had already been reports in the press about his arrest. The police denied these. The autopsy, however, revealed that the fatal bullets had been fired from too close a range to sustain the fiction of a 90-minute crossfire.
  19. ↑ "Autopsy reveals bullets fired from 5 feet: Basra's death". Dawn. 18 May 2002. Retrieved 19 June 2013. The autopsy report of Riaz Basra... revealed that they were fired upon from a distance of five to 10 feet...However, some of them confided to this scribe that the police encounter was fake. They wondered that in an half-an-hour encounter, no policeman sustained injury... They belied Ghalvis claim that they informed the police which reached the spot in just five minutes from various police stations of the district. They said it took an hour to reach Dokota from Vehari, and 30 minutes from Mailsi.
  20. ↑ "Pakistan prepared to repulse attack: Nisar urges peace with India". Dawn. Retrieved 19 June 2013. Mr Memon said that Riaz Basra had been killed in a police encounter and his body had been identified by Punjab's inspector-general of police. It was wrong to say that Riaz Basra was killed in a fake encounter, he added. He rejected the idea that there should be a judicial inquiry into the killing of Riaz Basra.
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