Mukhtar a Biograghy

Chapter 24 - Mukhtar Goes After the Perpetrators of Kerbala When Ibrahim arrives back in Kufa, Mukhtar decides to leave Ubaydallah Ziyad for a while as he sees it is tying up too much of his resources with no quick results.

So Mukhtar tells Ibrahim that the time is now right to go after the local people who participated in the killings at Kerbala; they will also be caught unaware for they think we are determined to catch Ubaydallah Ziyad first.

Mukhtar calls for one of his most able commanders, Abdulla Kamil and gives him complete authority with the order: blockade Kufa utterly tight with nobody able to go out or come in without by-passing our soldiers.

With the effective blockade in force, Mukhtar and Ibrahim are in the governor's palace, and the order goes out that all those who participated in the Kerbala massacre should be rounded up and brought to the palace.

The perpetrators of Kerbala were taken by complete surprise, for as Mukhtar had thought, they did not expect a blockade around Kufa when it appeared that Mukhtar and Ibrahim were busy chasing Ubaydallah Ziyad.

Whenever the people who participated in the crimes at Kerbala were caught, Mukhtar used to ask them to relate exactly what they did there; this way, no innocent person was executed, and also, this is how we have got so much details of the atrocities in Kerbala directly from the perpetrator's own mouth; also the excuse of "I was under orders" was not accepted by Mukhtar for people had the chance to change sides, as some did (notably Hurr).

The first two people caught are Abdulla Asaad and Malik Bashir; Abdulla was amongst those who burnt the tents and robbed Imam Husein (as) of his turban after his death; Mukhtar orders his hands and legs to be cut whereby Abdulla thrashes to death in agony; Malik Bashir was the one who robbed Imam Husein's (as) sword and Mukhtar orders that Malik be similarly killed.

Next, Nafee Malik is caught; he was one of Umar Saad's commander who was in charge at the bank of river Euphrates to ensure that no drop of water gets to Imam Husein's (as) side; and it was on his order that an arrow was aimed at the water bag carried by Hazrat Abbas; Mukhtar orders Nafee's executed.

Over the next few days, a number of perpetrators are caught, tried and the guilty are executed by the orders of Mukhtar; Abdulla Kamil is now after the major killers like Khooli, Sinan, Hurmala, Shimr, Umar Saad.

Abdulla Kamil and his men go to search Khooli's house but he is not there; Khooli has two wives, one Kufian and one Syrian; the Syrian wife, who is anti-Shia, is questioned by Abdulla Kamil and she says Khooli is out of town; the Kufian wife, a Shia, also says the same but she discreetly points her finger to a secret attic (another report says she points to a basement toilet); further detailed searching in the attic revealed Khooli crouched therein.

Abdulla Kamil takes Khooli and his two wives to Mukhtar, where Khooli is put into prison whilst his two wives are questioned by Mukhtar; he asks the Kufian wife why she gave Khooli's hideout away; she says she is a Shia

and once, the Syrian wife came to her singing and dancing saying that she is very happy, for Khooli has brought the head of Imam Husein (as) which she has put in the hot pit; the Kufian wife goes and takes Imam Husein's (as) head out of the pit and laments over it.

Mukhtar then questions the Syrian wife who admits to the alleged deed and says that Yazeed was her Khalifa; Mukhtar orders her body to be dismembered and then cut into pieces; the Kufian wife is given money and set free.

Khooli is then brought to the court, and after the initial excuse of "I was just obeying orders" etc, he admits to the following, amongst other crimes: controlled the unit of archers and gave the order to fly the arrows; stripped Sukaina's veil, and pulled her earrings off her lobes; beat up Imam Zainul Abideen (as) from his unconscious state with a cane, rolled the Imam to the ground from the makeshift bed, and stole the blankets covering the sick Imam; stripped Lady Zainab of her veil and earrings.

Mukhtar orders Khooli's hands and legs be cut and then thrown alive into the fire to burn to death.

Next, the ten leaders who trampled on Imam Husein's (as) body are caught; they are tied and pinned to the ground and then trampled with horses until they die.

Many other perpetrators of Kerbala are brought before Mukhtar, interrogated and the guilty are executed; for a short time, no more perpetrators are apprehended despite the search, as the prominent and powerful people of Kufa were protecting them by giving shelter in their homes; Mukhtar gives the order to go and arrest the perpetrators even if they are in the homes of these powerful and prominent people.

Abdulla Kamil gets the information that Hakim Tufayl, a killer of Hazrat Abbas, is under the protection of Adi Hakim Tai, a very powerful and prominent person in Kufa; Abdulla Kamil and his men goes to Adi Tai's house and arrests Hakim Tufayl; at the time, Adi Tai is not in but he soon gets news of the arrest.

Adi Tai goes straight to Mukhtar demanding the release of Hakim Tufayl saying he was under his protection; just then, Abdulla Kamil walks in with the head of Hakim Tufayl, explaining that on the way, when people heard of Hazrat Abbas's killer being arrested, they could not restrain their anger and immediately killed him; other reports say that the people were aware that should Hakim Tufayl go into the courtyard alive (especially when Adi Tai is already in the court to protest Hakim Tufayl's arrest), he was likely to be pardoned because of the pressure Mukhtar would be in, under the influence of the very prominent Adi Tai.

After seeing the ineffectiveness of the intervention of a prominent like Adi Tai, the rest of the major killers (like Shimr, Sinan, Hurmala, Umar Saad) were very worried about their lives.

Sinan manages to escape from Kufa to a town of Zihad where he asks the people there for their protection; the people refuse for if they were found harbouring any killer, they knew Mukhtar would not spare them, so Sinan left.

After his departure, other people in the town objected to not giving protection to Sinan, so they went after him to bring him back to their town; Sinan sees a group of people running after him and thinks it is Mukhtar's soldiers, so he starts firing arrows; these people become angry for they were offering Sinan sanctuary, and he dares attack them, so the people fire back at Sinan, arrest him and take him to Mukhtar.

Sinan confesses in Mukhtar's court that amongst other crimes, he tried to steal a belt from Imam Husein (as) when he had fallen from his horse during the last few moments of his life; but the Imam repeatedly used his hands to cover the belt which was sewn by Lady Fatema (as), and Sinan cuts off Imam Husein's (as) hands in order to get to the belt; Mukhtar orders that Sinan's fingers should cut one at a time, then his elbows be cut, then his arms, his legs, and then finally thrown into fire until burned to death.

The other major killers are now shaking with fear after seeing the fate of Hakim Tufayl and Sinan; they meet together to make a plan to escape out of Kufa.

Shimr tries to escape from Kufa but he is tracked down and executed.

Hurmala is caught and brought to the court of Mukhtar; Hurmala confesses that amongst other crimes, he pierced with an arrow the water bag that Hazrat Abbas was carrying, he fired the fatal three pronged arrow at Ali Asghar's tender neck, and also fired an arrow at Imam Husein's (as) forehead in his last moments thereby causing the Imam to fall to the ground; Mukhtar orders that Hurmala's hands and feet be dismembered and then showered with arrows to his death.

Umar Saad says he has since sought the protection of Abdulla Joda Hubayra, a close friend of Imam Ali (as), and so Mukhtar would respect that patronage; when Abdulla Joda Hubayra intervenes for Umar Saad, Mukhtar (with a plan in mind) reluctantly agrees to Umar Saad's pardon provided Umar Saad does not involve himself in any further mischief and would not leave Kufa.

However, Mukhtar later instructs Abdulla Kamil to arrest a perpetrator of Kerbala, fitting a certain description (of Umar Saad), but not mentioning him by name; a relative of Umar Saad who is in the court at the time, overhears Mukhtar's description and sends word to Umar Saad to run for his life for the order of his arrest was out.

Umar Saad is in search of someone who will help him get out of Kufa secretly; someone suggests that there is alive an engineer from Banu Tamim tribe, who was involved in the planning of Kufa, and he could get Umar Saad out; this engineer is approached but he is not told the reason or the identity of the person wishing to get to the borders of Kufa.

The engineer takes Umar Saad to the border where people there advise Umar Saad to return to Kufa as running away was a breach of the promise of his protector that Umar Saad would remain within Kufa, and Mukhtar would then surely track him down.

The engineer then realises the trick played on him, and says he would report back to Mukhtar; so Umar Sad reluctantly comes back to Kufa and to his protector, Abdulla Joda Hubayra.

Hubayra, who now refuses to extend his patronage to Umar Saad for he has broken the promise of not leaving Kufa.

Mukhtar having got all the detail reports, comes to Abdulla Joda Hubayra and says that Umar Saad can now be arrested as there is a breach of promise that Umar Saad will not attempt to leave Kufa.

Umar Saad now uses another tactic to stay alive; he goes to one of his wives, who is a sister of Mukhtar, and asks her to intervene for him; she says she hasn't seen Mukhtar for a long time because of Umar Saad's doings, but Umar Saad pleads with her to give it a try.

Mukhtar's sister comes to Mukhtar, but he is very surprised to see her for they had not maintained contacts while she was till married to Umar Saad; he tells her that she should be ashamed to remain married to Umar Saad.

The sister replies that he did indeed think of killing Umar Saad when he was against the Shias and following Ubaydallah Ziyad; but then Mukhtar was in prison under the orders of Ubaydallah Ziyad, and had she killed her husband, Ubaydallah Ziyad would have never forgiven and released Mukhtar even on Abdulla Omar's recommendation.

Mukhtar advises his sister not to return to Umar Saad for he is to be arrested soon.

Umar Saad, who was the Commander in Chief at Kerbala, is arrested and Mukhtar orders that he first be immersed in boiling oil, then let out, have his nails removed, and Mukhtar himself gorges Umar Saad's eyes and cuts the flesh from his thighs which he forces Umar Saad to eat, and then Mukhtar calls for lancers to probe Umar Saad violently to his death.