Pir Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani, also known as Sheikh Mubarak Gilani, breathed his last in Lahore at the age of 84 on May 15.

Born on August 15, 1936, into the family of Syed Masood Ali Shah Gilani, one of the custodians of Mian Mir’s shrine in Lahore, Gilani was the eldest of two brothers and four sisters. He graduated from Punjab University and founded an Adventure Club, a platform for climbers and mountaineers in the 1950s. A clean-shaven Gilani later stepped into the political arena and joined Air Marshal Asghar Khan’s Tehreek-i-Istaqlal. Asghar Khan valued his family background and appointed him a vice president of the party’s Punjab chapter.

During the 1970s, the TI was among the main challengers on the streets to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s PPP government. Gilani was thrice arrested and sent to jail for leading anti-government rallies. Later, he left for Saudi Arabia, from where he moved to the United States in 1981.

In the United States Gilani was introduced to various social and religious groups. He was said to have founded Jamaatul Fuqra or Tanzimul Fuqra during his stay in the US. His followers in Pakistan deny this, but US security agencies believed that Gilani was involved in the organisation that used several names including Jamaatul Fuqra and the Muslims of America.

Gilani set up religious seminaries in the US, focused on African-American communities for his preaching and developed a strong following. He was also said to have contracted several marriages. Three are on record: first to a Pakistani woman, second to an African-American woman and the third with a Canadian citizen.

Jamaatul Fuqra was eventually declared a terrorist network in the US. An investigation said: “In the 1980s, al Fuqra carried out various terrorist acts, including numerous fire-bombings across the United States. JF’s early targets in North America were ethnic Indians and targets linked to various Indian sects. In July 1983, Stephen Paul Paster, a front-ranking JF member, was responsible for planting a pipe bomb at a Portland hotel owned by followers of the Bhagwan Rajneesh cult. After his arrest in Colorado, Pastor served four years of a 20-year prison sentence for the bombing. He was suspected but not charged in two other bombings in Seattle in 1984 — the bombings of the Vedanta Society temple and the Integral Yoga Society building.

Gilani’s name came to the limelight in Pakistan after the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping and assassination. Some reports said Pearl had wanted to interview him during his visit to Pakistan.

In 1987-88, Gilani returned to Pakistan and took residence at his old house. He built at a khanqah in a village near Jallo Park, Lahore. Some of his followers were convinced that he could perform miracles.

Gilani’s name came to the limelight after Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping and assassination. Pearl, according to some reports, had wanted to meet him during his visit to Pakistan. Gilani was initially declared a prime suspect in Pearl’s kidnapping and police reported having arrested him from Rawalpindi. However, people close to the family said Gilani had surrendered after the police picked one of his sons and subjected him to torture. He was kept in jail for a while. Later an anti-terrorism court released him.

Gilani was also reported to be linked to Richard Reid, the Shoe Bomber, who was said to have been trained by Al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan.

Gilani’s followers suspected that Pearl was on a dubious mission. They allege that “Pearl met with RAW officials in Delhi before leaving for Pakistan.”

Family sources said Gilani had suffered a stroke resulting from chronic asthma. He was taken to a hospital, where doctors advised that he be taken home. He died at his house.

Some of his followers and old friends expected that he would be buried at the shrine of Hazrat Mian Mir. Another relative said, “He had directed his family well before his demise that they should bury him at his khanqah near Jallo Mor. That is why he was buried there.“

Gilani is survived by eight sons, three daughters and two wives, an African-American and a Canadian.

Three of his sons, Mansoor Gilani, Sultan Gilani and Wahab Gilani, live in the US. The rest of his children are based in Pakistan.

The writer is a senior journalist, teacher of journalism, writer and researcher. He tweets at @BukhariMubasher