Career
Jhangvi invited Tariq to run his madrassa in order to promote his ideology. Following Jhangvi"s assassination in 1990, Azam Tariq inherited the top position in the group, when he survived the explosion in Lahore that killed another prominent front-runner for the slot, Ziaur Rehman Farooqi. During this time, the Sipah-e-Sahaba operative Riaz Basra developed differences with Azam Tariq and formed his own group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
In August 2001, Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf banned seven alleged terrorist organizations, including Sipah-e-Sahaba, and Azam Tariq was arrested and jailed on charges of terrorism.
A spate of killings of several prominent Shi"a leaders immediately followed, targeting those who were allegedly complicit in Tariq"s arrest and the crackdown on his organization. Azam Tariq was elected three times to the National Assembly of Pakistan in Jhang Sadr, even though his constituency was a predominantly Shi"a region.
He contested again in the 2002 elections, while in custody, and was again elected. He was released in November 2002 and provided the crucial one-seat majority to the prime minister, Zafarullah Khan Jamali, under the Musharraf government.
Azam Tariq was shot and killed in an attack on October 4, 2003 near Islamabad as he left the M2 Motorway to enter the city.
Another leader, Qari Zia-ur-Rehman was also killed. Tariq"s supporters blamed Shi"a vigilante militants for the killings, and Shi"a leader Sajid Naqvi was arrested several days later. However, the case remains unsolved.
