Why did Sikhs target Rawalpindi's 'Bullet Mosque'?

According to the year of construction on the entrance of this mosque, it was built in the time of Akbar, however, some experts consider it to be the mosque of the time of Sher Shah Suri.

Old Rawalpindi is on the left side of Jamia Masjid Road in Rawalpindi. Where the streets are so narrow that, according to Mushtaq Ahmed Yousifi, "a man is coming on one side and a woman on the other side, only marriage is left in the middle."

In the old days these narrow streets were built with security in mind and secondly it was not even known at that time that times would change so fast that horses and donkeys would be replaced by motorcars and anti-government forces They will be stopped.

Both time and history remain in these old streets of Rawalpindi. On Jamia Masjid Road, on the left side, there is Gali Chen Bazaar, on the left side of which is Mohalla Niaryan.

'Niyari' is an ancient profession which refers to those who sift gold from the sands of rivers. When the Sawan River overflowed, it was the Niyari who sifted through the sand that gathered along its banks, separating the fine gold particles from it, which were later poured. Adjacent to this neighborhood is the Sarafa Bazaar where this gold was made into ornaments.

There is no history as to when these Niyari settled here but two names are important in the founders of Rawalpindi: one is of Ghande Sardar Jhande Khan at the end of 15th century and the other is of Sardar Malkha Singh Thayepuri who In the last decades of the eighteenth century, the town developed so much that people from the surrounding area began to settle here. 

It is probable that the Niyari also came and settled here in the same period, with a large number of migrants from the cities of Bhairah and Attock. Dangerous floods in the Jhelum and Indus rivers are believed to have caused migration to Rawalpindi. According to the Gazetteer 1930 of Attock District, a catastrophic flood occurred in Attock District in 1841, leaving no survivors in the villages around the Indus River.

Signs of such a catastrophic flood are scattered in the historic towns of Neelab and Makhd in Attock district. There are carved rocks in Neelab which are found on the site of Diamer Bhasha Dam. There was a great flood which lifted the rocks from there and threw them away hundreds of miles away. In the same way, there are round stones in Makhd on both sides of the mountains which are found in the bottom of the river, that is, so much water came that it passed over the mountains.

There is an ancient mosque in Mohalla Niaryan which is known as the mosque with bullets. The year of construction is 1010 AH on its door which is 1602 according to the Christian calendar. This is the time when India was ruled by Mughal Emperor Akbar.

The walls of this mosque are up to 10 feet thick with arches. The mosque is 20 feet long and 10 feet wide. The altars were embellished with Multani in 2013 and the front altar has been adorned with Mughal art.

Abdul Qadir Sahib is the Imam and Khatib of this mosque. He told Independent Urdu that there are Sunni traditions about the actual history of this mosque which have reached us. However, its real name is Shahi Masjid which is the first mosque in Rawalpindi which was built during the reign of Sher Shah Suri.

It may be recalled that Sher Shah Suri was on the throne of Delhi from 1537 to 1542. The mosque may have been built during this period and its door was built in 1602.

The well in the courtyard of the mosque is also ancient. However, its water was salty, so it was used for the martyred pages of the Qur'an. During the expansion of the mosque in 1985, when it was cleaned, salt water was replaced by fresh water.

Khatib said that it is called the Bullet Mosque because bullets were fired here during the Sikh era, the traces of which are still present on the dome, while the traces on the inner walls of the mosque were erased during the 2013 expansion.

For a long time a question was running through my mind that what were the circumstances and events that led the Sikhs to target this mosque?

Surprisingly, when I asked this question to Khatib Sahib, he did not have the answer.

Interestingly, the village of Curry near Rawalpindi, now in Islamabad, also has an ancient mosque that resembles a bullet-ridden mosque in terms of its size and architecture. The year of construction of this mosque is inscribed as 198 AH, ie 814 AD, but it was very difficult to believe because there is no historical evidence of arrival of Muslims in this area in that period.

Secondly, the resemblance between the two mosques suggests that they were built in the same era. If it is assumed that the Curry Mosque was built 1250 years ago today and the Bullet Mosque 450 years ago, then one has to wonder why no other building of that era still exists, especially Jainism. Why is there no old temple of the oldest religion of Rawalpindi? 

An eyewitness to the seven and a half hundred year rule of the Ghakhars at Pothohar

Dr. Bashir Ahmad Malik, a resident of old Rawalpindi, says: Its architecture is also Mughal in which small bricks like royal forts have been used. In the Sikh era, he was shot so that the Muslims would be attacked by the Sikhs and the Sikh army would be trained to shoot.

Although there is no history of that period, the bullet marks inside the mosque also show that the Muslims took refuge in the mosque and the Sikhs did not allow them to enter the mosque. For a long time after this incident, this mosque continued to be used as a stable for Sikhs, like the royal mosque of Lahore. Shortly afterwards, however, two prominent Kashmiri Muslims surrendered the mosque at Ranjit Singh's court. Until the establishment of the Jama Masjid in Rawalpindi in 1901, it was the only mosque in which barely 20 people could offer prayers. However, in 1985, the adjoining house was purchased and the mosque was expanded.

At the time of partition, non-Muslims were 57% of the total population in Rawalpindi city. Not only was the Muslim population small but also socially and economically backward, so before the partition of the city there were fewer mosques and more temples and gurdwaras.

Then history turned around. Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Parsis left the city in sacks. Now mosques and non-Muslim places of worship are deserted in Rawalpindi. After Jainism, Buddhism, Hindus and Sikhs, the Muslim era is in full swing. In the future, the city is going to be the connecting point of the Silk Road and the highways connecting Delhi to Central Asia. Economic activity will give rise to a pluralistic society where beliefs will once again embrace each other. The bitter past will be dusted off so that the foundation of a new tomorrow can be laid.

No wonder the bullet-ridden mosque is called the throat mosque where flowers bloom all the time.

Tibetan exile organization publishes annual report: Chinese government violates Tibetan human rights and culture

The 2021 report on human rights in Tibet released by an exiled Tibetan NGO pointed out that the Chinese government violated the human rights of Tibetans, including arbitrary detention, torture, religious repression, and suppression of freedom of speech and information. At least 430 people have been arrested, detained, interrogated, and imprisoned. In the name of "sinicization", the CCP prohibits children from accepting Tibetan religion, language and culture. Recently, six Tibetan-language primary schools have been closed. Tibetan officials in exile pointed out that the destruction of Tibetan language and culture is more lethal than forceful repression.

The Tibetan Human Rights and Democracy Promotion Center (TCHRD), a civic organization in Dharamsala, India, chose to release the 2021 Annual Report on Human Rights in Tibet on the 26th, the second day of the 11th Panchen Lama's birthday. The report documents the Chinese government's ongoing human rights abuses in Tibet, including arbitrary detention and torture, religious repression, and widespread suppression of the right to freedom of speech and information flow.

The report pointed out that the CCP continues to persecute Tibetan writers, scholars, and intellectuals. At least 10 well-known Tibetans have been detained in secret locations for a long time and sentenced to 4 to 10 years in prison. For example, monk writer Goche Ragyatso was sentenced to 10 years in prison for inciting separatism; Longwugeng Denglingdrup, who manages several popular Tibetan-language websites, was detained at the end of last year; and Tibetan educator Senan was detained in April last year. Still missing.

According to the report, at least 430 Tibetans have been arrested, detained and interrogated in 2021. In March last year, authorities launched a campaign in Wenbo Township, Shiqu County, to hold and worship photos of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, as "criminal" and to immediately stop providing financial support and other state benefits. The campaign aims to replace pictures of Tibetan leaders with pictures of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Police raided Tibetan homes and mobile phones on a massive scale. As of September last year, a total of 117 people had been detained and forced to undergo compulsory political education courses.

The report also notes that in recent years there have been cases of Tibetans being held in “re-education” facilities, where conditions are extremely poor, with insufficient food, beatings, abuse and sexual abuse. In addition, police and security personnel secretly detain Tibetans and extort confessions.

Numerous nuns revealed after their release that they were sexually abused by discipline officers

Dawa Tsering, director of the Tibetan Policy Research Center of the Central Tibetan Administration, said in an interview with Radio Free Asia that he did hear that many nuns were sexually abused after they were released, and it was difficult to say whether it was the personal behavior of the discipline personnel.

Dawa Tsering said that this report provides all-round evidence of China's policy of assimilation and sinicization of Tibetans, which is more lethal than arresting hundreds of people. "China has plans and steps to exterminate Tibetan culture and religion, and implement a policy of genocide. Although it seems that there is no trace of blood, but after a period of implementation, the effect will be devastating to Tibetans."

The report of the Tibetan Human Rights and Democracy Promotion Center pointed out that in the meeting of the Central Ethnic Work Committee last August, Xi Jinping instructed to strengthen the policy of cultural assimilation, and called on the leaders of the Tibetan region to give top priority to the work of "building a sense of community of the Chinese nation." Policies and laws that destroy minority languages ​​and cultures.

CCP spends huge sums of money to force Tibetan children to learn Mandarin

Last year, Qinghai Province released a plan to improve the Putonghua ability of preschool children, investing 9.3 billion yuan in five years to set up kindergartens to promote Putonghua. China's education law requires all children over the age of 6 to attend public schools with a nine-year "compulsory education" curriculum, which is extended to 15 years in the Tibet Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. In Shiqu County, parents were forced to sign that their children were not allowed to enter the monastery or become a monk before the age of 18.

In July last year, the Shilong Palace School, a Tibetan-language junior high school with more than 300 students in Golodari County, was suspended for no reason. Teacher Rinchenji was detained on the charge of "inciting secession" and sent to a mental hospital after a hunger strike. His whereabouts are still unknown.

Dawa Cairen pointed out that whether it is the Tibetan Children's Palace or the boarding school after primary school, the purpose is to occupy Manchu Tibetan students' time in class and after class, and cut off their connection with the native language and culture of Tibet.

In an interview with Radio Free Asia, a Tibetan postdoctoral researcher, Dolma Ciren, pointed out that China used to control "religion", but now it controls "education" and wants to turn all Tibetans into "Chinese". I don't know Tibetan language, I don't know Tibetan history.

Dolma Ciren believes that the CCP's assimilation policy has no way to change the identity of Tibetans: "Look at about 159 people in Tibet who set themselves on fire, most of them are young people. The more control over our culture and religion, will not make us Chinese, we I just thought to myself, why not let me learn my own language and culture? We must learn Tibetan and protect our culture. The CCP’s idea is wrong.”

Dolma Ciren mentioned that Caiwang Norbu, a Tibetan singer who died recently after self-immolation, was only 25 years old. The songs he sang were all about Tibetan culture and language. Even the CCP’s Douyin can see a 10-year-old Tibetan child saying, “If you can’t speak Tibetan, it’s a shame, but if you can’t speak Mandarin, it’s not a shame.”

Zeng Jianyuan, chairman of the Chinese Democracy Academy, said in an interview with Radio Free Asia that the core message of the report is that the basic principles of China's constitution concerning ethnic minorities have been completely destroyed. Regional ethnic autonomy and respect for minority languages ​​and cultures are in line with the spirit of communism and national self-determination to liberate mankind. The CCP’s assimilation policy towards Inner Mongolia, Tibet, and Xinjiang has long gone against the spirit of the CCP and is a betrayal of the CCP.