Inside Maurrick: Did India hit a “terrorist base” or a mosque? | Indian Pakistani tensions

Student, Pakistan The building’s roof declined dangerously, as a peek on the sun was thrown through a hole, while the Earth below was full of debris, and the doors of the rooms were detonated by the explosion.

This was India’s message to Pakistan, and it is one of the series of missile strikes that was launched in the early 7 hours of May as a division A fatal attack on tourists In Pahalgam, Kashmir that relies on Indian, on April 22, in which 26 people were killed. India blamed Pakistan for this attack, but Islamabad denied any involvement.

The Indian strike on Muridke was part of Sindoor OperationThe most expansion group of air attacks on Pakistan outside the four wars fought by the nuclear armed neighbors. Among all the sites targeted by India, it was Especially important.

Meridic has long been believed to be home to the armed Lashkar-E-TAIBA (let) group, which was blamed on India and other countries in carrying out fatal attacks on Indian soil, including November 2008 attacks in Mumbai.

However, while Indian security officials and Foreign Minister Vikram Missri insisted on Wednesday that they struck the “terrorist infrastructure” and that the Indian missiles only struck armed groups, Pakistan was killed that 31 civilians, including at least two children, were killed.

In Muridke, hours after the missile strike, the low suspended ceiling belonged to the administrative mass of a large boat called the Government Complex for Health and Educational. The complex includes a hospital, two schools, a hostel, and a large school, with more than 3000 students studying in various institutions, including school. The complex also included 80 homes, and homes to nearly 300 people, most of them government employees.

On Wednesday, the administrative bloc was hit, as it was a large balcony mosque. Three men, all of whom died between the ages of 20 and 30 and part of the religious employees, died in the attack, and one person was injured.

A rescue official said at the site, who told Al -Jazeera that he arrived within half an hour of the attack. He said, “I was the person who discovered the first body,” referring to a room inside the management bloc.

“We were already preparing for this.”

A small city of more than 250,000 people, Muridke is four hours from Islamabad, located about 30 km (18 miles) from Lahore, the regional capital of Punjab, which challenges India.

Tauseef Hasan, a government official, told Al -Jazeera that Muridke was the first site hit by Indian missiles that night.

Hassan said in a realistic tone: “Only a few minutes have passed from midnight when I heard two huge mutations, within two minutes. We were already preparing for this, and I knew exactly what happened.”

On the balcony, the mosque, Jamia UMMUL, stood with a large prayer hall where part of the ceiling collapsed. Two holes on the ceiling are the stains where the missiles were struck.

Hassan and his colleagues, Othman Jais, said that after a Bahama attack two weeks ago, the Pakistani authorities evaluated the risk of an attack on Mureideic, given the speech against the city and the boat, which I have long argued that he was the headquarters of the center.

“We have informed that MENIDIC could be a target, and for this reason we issued instructions to employees and residents of the complex to evacuate the place and leave the place,” said an island, adding that the killing was part of the skeleton staff who remained behind.

On one side of the balcony, width a large table of cutting the missile that struck the buildings. The smell of explosives and the remaining heat still clinging to metal fragments.

While Hassan and Gillis insisted that academic and educational institutions were completely under the control of the state, the origin of the boat tells a more complex story.

Education or militancy?

The complex was founded in 1988 by Hafiz Saeed, founder of the Group (Jude), a charitable organization that is widely considered to be a front to allow. Also, the Al -Mutaraq School, Jamaia Da Al -Islami, was also named after the group.

India accuses Saeed and called for the organization of many attacks on its soil, most notably the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which left more than 160 people over several days.

Abed Hussein, a 51 -year -old religious scientist who lives in the complex, denied strongly Indian allegations that the region was a “training facility” or “the headquarters of any terrorist group.”

“This complex has always been an educational center for children, both boys and girls. I was studying here myself, after I lived here over the past three decades,” said the mixed short man with a sullen beard.

The religious teacher continued to challenge the accusations that the area was used to train the fighters.

“If we have reasons and facilities to give opportunities to our students to learn swimming, horseback, or physical training, how does this mean to train terrorists?” He asked.

The Pakistani government acquired the facility from Judah in 2019, at a time when the country was under international pressure to take strict measures on Saeed and allow or placed in a “gray list” of countries that consider it not enough to stop financing for the banned armed groups.

Saeed was once regular.

Behind the mosque there is a street where two houses were completely destroyed. The solar panels and broken brick were scattered everywhere.

He recalled the night of the attack, and the resident, Ali Zafar, referred to his residence behind one of the buildings that were demolished. He said that the explosion could be heard at least seven kilometers (four miles), near a relative’s home where he moved with his family.

“A few days ago, the authorities told us to evacuate the place, so we moved outside the complex. It was certain that India would attack this area, as the media continued to shed light on Maurrick,” said Zafar, the bearded and wearing glasses.

Hassan, the government official, said that although the school and schools were closed for the academic year, the entire facility was under strict government supervision.

He said: “Once the government takes over the institute in 2019, we have confirmed that the curriculum and teaching are completely supervised.”

Hussein, the religious teacher, added that Saeed had stopped coming to the complex since the government controlled.

“He used to be a regular return in the late nineties and early first decade of the twentieth century,” he said.

Said was arrested, in the late 1970s, in 2019, and he is currently serving a 31 -year prison sentence by a Pakistani court in 2022 in two cases “financing terrorism”. He was already serving a 15 -year sentence, imposed in 2020, on a similar charge.