Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari

Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari was a Muslim Hanafi scholar, religious and political leader from the Indian subcontinent. He was one of the Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam's founding members. His biographer, Agha Shorish Kashmiri, states that Bukhari's greatest contribution had been his germination of strong anti-British feelings among the Indian Muslims. He was born in 1892 in Khem Karan, a town in Punjab province of British India. He studied at Jamia Nizamia Rizvia in Lahore and became a Hafiz-e-Quran and Sheikh-ul-Hadith. He was a follower of the Barelvi school of Sunni Islam and a staunch defender of the honour of Prophet Muhammad. He also heavily quoted the poetry of Imam Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi and Muhammad Iqbal, whom he considered to be his main influences. He migrated to Pakistan in 1947 after the partition of India and settled in Okara, where he built Masjid Ghausiyah and established Jamia Hanafiya Ashraf-ul-Madaris. He also participated in the movement to protect the finality of prophethood and opposed the Ahmadiyya sect. He founded TLP in 2015 as a political front for his movement. He led several protests and sit-ins against the government on various issues related to blasphemy laws, such as the execution of Qadri, the acquittal of Asia Bibi, and the publication of cartoons of Muhammad in France. He often used inflammatory and abusive language against his opponents and critics. He also claimed that he had the support of the Pakistan Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence. He died of natural causes in Multan on August 21, 1961. His funeral was attended by thousands of his followers. He was succeeded by his son, Kaukab Noorani Okarvi, as the leader of TLP.