Watch: Pak Cleric Slams Own Government As "Tyrannical", Denounces War With India

A Pakistani cleric has launched a scathing attack on his own government and has delcared that any war with India will be unislamic, in a video that has been widely circulated. In the video, Abdul Aziz Ghazi, a controversial cleric of Islamabad's Lal Masjid, criticises the Pakistani government, calling it a  "cruel, useless system".

In a video going viral on social media, Abdul Aziz Ghazi can be heard asking his audience whether they would stand with Pakistan in the event of a war with India. He question is met with an unexpected silence. Noting the lack of response from the crowd, the cleric commented, "There are very few [hands]. This means many are enlightened now. The matter is, war between Pakistan and India is not an Islamic war."

Abdul Aziz Ghazi goes on to denounce the Pakistan military, accusing it of widespread repression, claiming authorities in Pakistan have grown more oppressive- a bold and controversial take for someone associated with Lal Masjid, a place once synonymous with radical calls. 

لال مسجد کے مولانا عبدالعزیز غازی کا خطاب سنئیے جس میں وہ کہتے ہیں کہ پاکستان کی لڑائی قومیت کی لڑائی ہے اسلام کی نہیں اور پاکستان میں بھارت سے زیادہ ظلم ہے وغیرہ وغیرہ۔ ریاست کے وہ کارندے غور سے سُنیں جو ان حضرات کی سرپرستی کرتے ہیں اور سیکولر پاکستانیوں کو خطرہ سمجھتے ہیں۔ pic.twitter.com/l9Or4OJWHl

— Husain Haqqani (@husainhaqqani) May 4, 2025

"The system in Pakistan today is that of disbelief (kufr), a tyrannical system. It is worse than that of India. There isn't as much oppression in India as there is in Pakistan," he said. 

Referring to the siege of Lal Masjid in 2007, Abdul Aziz Ghazi said, "Did the Lal Masjid tragedy happen in India? Does India bomb its own citizens? Are people disappearing in India like they are in Pakistan?"

The cleric also cited atrocities in Waziristan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and accused the Pakistan government of bombing its own people.

"What happened in Waziristan and across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa - these are atrocities...The state bombed its own citizens. Have such atrocities occurred in India? Have their fighter jets bombed their people the way ours have? Are so many people reported missing in India? Here, people are exhausted from staging protests in search of their loved ones. Here, clerics are missing, journalists are missing, Tehreek-e-Insaf members are missing."

The video was reportedly recorded at Lal Masjid on May 2, has sparked outrage on Pakistani social media. It was also shared by Husain Haqqani, the former Pakistan ambassador to the US, who criticised the cleric for his views. 

History Of Lal Masjid

The mosque was established in 1965, shortly after Pakistan's capital was shifted from Karachi to Islamabad. Soon, it became a centre for radicalising people against India, with its chief cleric developing a close relationship with Pakistan's intelligence and security apparatus.

However, by 2006, when the Lal Masjid was headed by brothers Abdul Aziz and Abdul Rashid, it started openly challenging the Pakistani government by advocating the imposition of Sharia law across Pakistan. 

As the situation escalated, the then-Pakistani government, led by former President Pervez Musharraf, started seeing the mosque as a direct challenge to state authority. In 2007, the government ultimately launched a military, known as Operation Sunrise, aimed at quelling the growing threat emanating from the mosque.

As per official figures, the operation resulted in 154 deaths, while around 50 people were arrested. It also prompted pro-Taliban rebels along the Afghanistan border to nullify a 10-month-old peace agreement with the Pakistani government, leading to violence that resulted in more than 3,000 casualties in 2008.