You must all know that Lal Masjid is not Ahle Hadeeth (ultra wahabi) neither Salafi. Lal Masjid is Deobandi. They are deobandis who went against Taqi Usmani in Karachi, did not listen to him. They had punjabis and pathans among them. I am sure the deobandi heads in Pakistan and India will excommunicate these people from their community. I saw two of their women get arrested in a police van. The inside of the van had these words inscribed on its wall "Ya Allah.....Ya MuHammad" The two women were showing the V sign at the same time.
In 2006, the leaders of the mosque, Abdul Aaziz Ghazi and Abdul Rashid Ghazi, started to challenge the writ of the government in the capital of Islamabad, by setting up parallel Taliban style judicial system, and by instigating scores of incidents of kidnappings of people accused and convicted of un-Islamic activities. [1] [2] By the start of year 2007, the students of Lal Masjid, on the will of the administration of the annexed madrassa, Jamia Hafsa, started public preeching on ethics according to Islam and Sharia. This led towards many incidents that exceeded the limits and they took law in hands on some occassions. Authorities, asked them to refrain from such violations failing a stern action would be necessary. Meanwhile government on the concerns of growing unrest, deployed Pakistan Rangers and police near the Lal Masjid and made laying barbed wires as part of security measures. On July 3, 2007 some violent students from the madrassa Jamia Hafsa, snatched some wireless set and weapons from Rangers while a procession of female students was ongoing before the security forces. As part of this, police fired tear gas shells to disperse the angry violent students. Suddenly, some students opened fire on Rangers nearby resulting the death of one person from the Rangers. Upon this, cross-firing started leaving 11 dead on the occassion and about 150 injured. Among dead were some students, a TV news channel cameraman, a business man and some other passers-by. Within minutes, security forces cordonned-off the area and a state of emergency ordered in the capital's hospitals. The siege started that led to many other incidents. July 3, 2007 On July 3, 2007, a gun battle erupted between the supporters of Lal Masjid and Pakistani security forces one week after security forces enveloped the area with barbed wire, and after six months of a general standoff between the two parties.[3] The clash began when some militants tried to occupy a nearby government building[3]. Approximately 150 students attacked a Government of Pakistan office near the mosque and took four officials as hostages [4]. Further, Lal Masjid students had taken over certain government posts and had attacked government buildings and vehicles. Nine people, including mosque students, a journalist from the mosque, a Pakistan Rangers personnel and a businessman were killed while over 100 were injured in the initial incident.[5] July 4, 2007 Curfew: Authorities announced an indefinite curfew on the students of the mosque in Sector G-6 of Islamabad, where Lal Masjid is located. A command was issued to shoot anyone coming out of the mosque with arms. Deadlines: The Pakistani government announced frequent warnings and deadlines in an attempt to resolve the issue peacefully with minimal casualties. The government offered those inside the mosque who exit unarmed Rs. 5000 ($83; £41), and free education. Women inside the mosque were also offered safe passage to their homes.[6] The deadline was regularly extended as mosque leaders employed a strategy of allowing a certain amount of students to surrender during the passage of each deadline, requiring security forces to renegotiate an extension. First deadline: Government authorities announced the first deadline for students and persons present inside the Lal Masjid to surrender unconditionally by 1530 Pakistan Standard Time (PST). Second deadline: The Government further extended the deadline by half an hour to 1600 PST. Third deadline: A further extension was observed until 1800 PST. Fourth deadline: A fourth deadline was announced until 1930 PST. Fifth deadline: Authorities further relaxed the deadline until 2130 PST. The head of the mosque, Maulana Abdul Aziz, was captured attempting to leave disguised in a burqa after the fourth deadline. [7] After Aziz's capture, approximately 800 male students and 400 female students of Jamia Hafsa surrendered to the authorities.[7] July 5, 2007 Before dawn, Pakistani troops set off a series of selective explosions around the mosque. While fire was exchanged throughout the day, the clashes apparently stopped. Extension of deadlines continued on July 5th too with a strategy of the government to evacuate the mosque and annexed madrassa (Jamia Hafsa) as much possible before the final operation takes place. Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao announced at a press conference that it was believed that 300-400 students remained in the mosque, 50-60 of whom were militants. [7] However, controversial statements from government authorities are observed and according to surrendering students about 2000 students are still inside. Abdul Aziz's younger brother, Ghazi Abdul Rashid, has been negotiating with a government mediator. He claims that he and the remaining students would be willing to exit the mosque and lay down their arms provided the government stopped firing upon them and granted them amnesty. However, government officials are sceptical that Abdul Rashid will honour his word. [7] In his one of the telephonic interviews with one of live transmissions of Geo TV on Thursday, July 5, 2007, Moulana Ghazi Abdul Rashid denied all charges on him and said he was innocent. He further negotiated with the government to deal with him on safe passage and no harm to his companions inside besides taking care of his ailing mother. However, government asked him to surrender unconditionally along with his armed students. July 6, 2007 Siege continued on July 6th too. Meanwhile many negotiation offers were held between the besieged Lal Masjid administration and the government authorities. However, no positive outcome was observed. Meanwhile cross firing continued between the two parties. 21 more students surrendered before the authorities, 2 students were killed during cross-firing. Government is strategising to give more time for safe evacuation of the students from the besieged mosque and annexed madrassa before the final showdown. July 7, 2007 Ultimatum Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf issued an ultimatum of Saturday evening, after militants fired Antiaircraft guns at the Presidents plane as it took off, at Islamabad airport. Security forces captured two Antiaircraft guns along with a machine gun on a roof top of an Islamabad high rise, just a mile away from the airport. Pakistan army took control over the operations replacing the paramilitary troops who are earlier deployed near the premises. Federal Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao confirm presence of large number of arms inside the mosque. Death Toll As of July 7, 2007; death toll figured at over 70, as the cross-firing continues between the suspected militants and security forces.
Musharraf has not commented publicly on the siege at Islamabad's Red Mosque, or Lal Masjid, but has urged security agencies to be patient and allow maximum time for parents to take children out of a madrasa, or school, in the mosque compound. At least 21 people have been killed in clashes that erupted outside the mosque on Tuesday, and the compound housing the mosque and madrasa has been under siege by hundreds of troops and police. Water, gas and electricity supplies have been cut. The cleric inside, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, said late on Thursday he and the followers of his Taliban-style movement were willing to surrender but he also set conditions, including safe passage. The government rejected his demands and insisted Ghazi release women and children, authorities say he is holding as human shields, and surrender unconditionally. But Ghazi told Geo TV he would not bow to pressure: "We can be martyred, but we will not court arrest." A boy who surrendered after sneaking out of the mosque said older students were forcing younger ones to stay. "Food is running low and water is also limited," Ashraf Swati, 15, said, adding several wounded students were inside and the stench from dead bodies hung in the air. Intermittent gunfire and explosions have rocked the neighbourhood since Tuesday, and on Friday a burst of intensive fire trapped a handful of parents who had been allowed into the mosque to bring out children. Militants later fired on other parents approaching the mosque, wounding one. Tension between authorities and the mosque had been rising since Janury when the students, most of whom are in their 20s and 30s, launched an increasingly provocative campaign to press for various demands including action against vice. They threatened suicide attacks if suppressed. There was no indication a suicide bomber who threw himself at an army jeep killing six soldiers in the northwest was acting in support of the Red Mosque radicals, but the mosque is known to have supporters in the region. Ghazi's elder brother and chief mosque cleric, Abdul Aziz, was caught on Wednesday trying to flee disguised in a woman's all-covering burqa. He later called on followers to give up. About 1,200 students have come out. Aziz said there were some 850 students inside while Ghazi put the number at 1,900. Many Pakistanis welcomed the action against a movement reminiscent of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and symptomatic of the religious extremism seeping into cities from tribal border areas. Moderate politicians and the media had urged Musharraf to act sooner but he cited concern about bloodshed and authorities tried to appease them.
exactly brother chishti. it is easy to be brave when others are doing the dying. it reminds of this interview i read with this deobandi mullah once. when asked where his own children studied he said aitchison college which is the Eton of Pakistan!
Brother NJ..."fat mullah trying to escape dressed as a woman in a burkha!! and he urges OTHER PEOPLES' SONS and DAUGHTERS to give up their lives" - you just summed up all these people who prefer extremism and killing, the tony blairs and george bushes of this world wear suits and send the sons and daughters of the UK off to iraq while their sons and daughters are in private education and the extremist mullahs convince the children to go and sacrifice their lives while they slip away like slugs dressed as women. Fanatics will always send people to do their dirty work for them.
basically a mosque run by a bunch of fanatical extremist wahabi terrorists who in recent months have tried to take the law into their own hands by setting up a state within a state and destroying shops, kidnapping people and so on whom they considered acting against shariah. very taliban like. when they kidnapped some chinese workers who worked in a massage parlour it was the final straw as it could have threatened relations between pak and china. anyway i think the way the govt has handled this has been great in the last 3 days--they've given all the innocent stdents a chance to get out before they terminate the leaders and hardened terrorists. the funniest thing was seeing that fat mullah trying to escape dressed as a woman in a burkha!! and he urges OTHER PEOPLES' SONS and DAUGHTERS to give up their lives. khabis wahabi.
A religious school for women, the Jamia Hafsa madrassa, is attached to the mosque. A male madrassa is a few minutes drive away. Throughout most of its existence, the mosque has long been favoured by the city elite, including prime ministers, army chiefs and presidents. Pakistan's longest-ruling dictator, General Zia-ul-Haq, was said to be very close to the former head of the Lal Masjid, Maulana Abdullah, who was famous for his speeches on jihad (holy war). This was during the 1980s when the mujahideen's fight against Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was at its peak, and jihad was seen as an acceptable clarion call in the Muslim world. The mosque is located near the headquarters of Pakistan's shadowy ISI intelligence service, which helped train and fund the holy warriors, and a number of ISI staff are said to go there for prayers. 'Terror links' The Lal Masjid has since been a centre of radical Islamic learning and houses several thousand male and female students in adjacent seminaries. Gen Musharraf is thus understandably perturbed by the mosque and its leaders and has repeatedly ordered action against them Maulana Abdullah was assassinated in the mosque in late nineties, and since then the entire complex has been run by his sons, Maulana Abdul Aziz and Abdul Rashid Ghazi. The brothers admit to having had good contacts with many of the wanted leaders of al-Qaeda, including Osama Bin Laden. This was in the years before the 11 September, 2001 attacks on the US, when jihad was part of Pakistan's state-sanctioned policy. Since the "war on terror" began, however, both the Lal Masjid and the Jamia Hafsa deny having had any links with organisations now banned for supporting terrorism. But they have been vehement in their support for the "jihad against America" and have openly condemned President Musharraf. Tribal areas In speeches after Gen Musharraf openly announced his support for the war on terror", the mosque has been the centre of calls for his assassination. One of these speeches was delivered by Maulana Masood Azhar, whose Jaish-e-Mohammad fundamentalist group members were later involved in several failed attempts on the life of the president. Gen Musharraf is thus understandably perturbed by the mosque and its leaders and has repeatedly ordered action against them. So far all attempts to rein the mosque and its leaders in have been unsuccessful. The Lal Masjid and its madrassa also have strong links to the tribal areas of Pakistan, which provide many of their students. In a recent interview, Abdul Rashid Ghazi said that they had the support of the Waziristan Taleban and any actions against the madrassa would have an "appropriate response". The Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa were in the news in July 2005 when Pakistani security forces tried to raid the mosque following the suicide bombings that month in London. The security personnel were met by baton-wielding women who refused to let them enter the mosque or seminary compound. Authorities said the security forces were investigating a link between the seminary and Shehzad Tanweer, one of the 7 July bombers. The school has been in the limelight ever since. 'Fight to death' The madrassa's administration has also been particularly vocal in raising the issue of missing people in Pakistan - hundreds of suspected radical militants and their families who are allegedly in the detention of Pakistan's intelligence agencies. A large number of Jamia Hafsa students come from the tribal areas It was also a leading light in the protests in Pakistan against Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad which led to demonstrations all over the Muslim world. And it was the Jamia Hafsa which British schoolgirl Misbah Rana, also known as Molly Campbell, was reported to have been interested in joining after arriving in Pakistan at the centre of an international custody row. The latest controversy to feature the school was when it launched a campaign against the demolition of mosques in Islamabad by the capital authority. After the administration started the demolition of part of the mosque, said to have been constructed illegally, students of the seminaries launched an all-out campaign against them. They prevented the authorities physically from reaching the site and then occupied the building of a nearby children's library. Most of this was done by the female students, many of whom were carrying Kalashnikovs during the occupation. The students then set-up a round the clock vigil and promised to "fight to death" after the government threatened to evict them. The situation was only defused after the authorities backed down and offered talks. The government has since reconstructed the demolished part of the mosque compound, but the administration maintains that six other mosques around the capital city which have met similar treatment should also be rebuilt. In the meantime, students have remained in occupation of the library and have been involved in other "social activities" like the raid on the hostel.
