# Abdul Aziz (Pakistani cleric)

Mawlānā Muhammad Abdul Aziz (Urdu: محمد عبد العزيز) is a Pakistani Islamic scholar belonging to the Deobandi movement within Sunni Islam, who serves as both the Imam and Khatib of Lal Masjid in Islamabad, which was the site of a siege in 2007 with the Pakistani army. He also serves as the chancellor of Jamia Faridia and Jamia Hafsa.
He is the son of Muhammad Abdullah Ghazi, and elder brother of Abdul Rashid Ghazi.
Aziz was released from custody by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2009 and acquitted in 2013.

## Early life and education

He is an ethnic Baloch, a part of Baloch diaspora who migrated to Punjab from Baluchistan. He is from the Sadwani clan of the Mazari tribe, in the town of Rojhan in Rajanpur, the border district of Punjab province of Pakistan. He first came to Islamabad as a six-year-old boy from his home town in Rajanpur, when his father was appointed Khatib of Lal Masjid in 1966.
He studied for few years at Islamabad College, a public school from where he completed his Intermediate and then joined Jamia Farooqia, where he was a student of Saleemullah Khan.
Aziz later graduated with a Dars-i Nizami degree from Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia, a Madrasa in Karachi.
After Graduation, Aziz served as Imam of The Mujaddiya Mosque in F-8, Islamabad, and as Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Faridia and Jamia Hafsa.

## Father's assassination

In October 1998, Aziz's father was assassinated in the courtyard of Lal Masjid as he was returning from teaching a class at Jamia Faridia. The assassin afterwards, fired at Aziz, who barely escaped death.
The assassin escaped with the help of an accomplice waiting outside in a car. Aziz's father died of his injuries on the way to the hospital.

## Lal Masjid

Following his father's assassination, Aziz was appointed Imam of Lal Masjid and succeeded his father as the chancellor of both Jamia Faridia and Jamia Hafsa.
He closely followed the supreme leader of the Taliban, Mullah Omar, and typically resisted being photographed. He warned the government of attacks in the case of a violent police operation launched against the seminary. "If the government fails to eradicate all these moral evils from the society within the specified period of one month the students of the seminary would themselves take actions against all the people involved in such activities," said Abdul Aziz while addressing Friday Prayer congregation at Lal Masjid.

## 2007 showdown and arrest

On 3 July 2007, the standoff with the government ended in bloody gun battles in which some publications claim that more than 1,000 students were killed and scores wounded. The official death toll is much lower, at fewer than 300.
On 4 July 2007 at 8:05 a.m., Aziz was arrested while leaving the complex disguised in a burqa.
Aziz claims the reason for his cross-dressing escape was that he was called "by a senior official of an intelligence agency with whom he has been in touch for a long time" (Aziz admitted that he and his brother had done this many times before when they were declared wanted by the government) and since this man could not enter into the mosque to meet him, he asked Aziz to come down to Aabpara police station, situated on a walking distance from the mosque and asked him to wear a burqa to avoid identification.

## Release

Aziz was released on 16 April 2009 by the Supreme Court of Pakistan as he awaited trial on alleged charges of murder, incitement, and kidnapping. He was greeted by throngs of supporters.
Since then he has resumed his post as Imam and Khatib of Lal Masjid and has also continued to serve as Chancellor of Jamia Faridia and Jamia Hafsa.
Since 2001, 27 different cases have been filed unsuccessfully against him.

## Books
### By him

* Allah ki azeem naimat (The Great Blessings Of God)
* Islami nizam ka mujawwiza khaka (Proposed Blueprint Of Islamic System)