Adil Najam
As the mosque formerly known as Lal Masjid was opened for Friday prayers again, things moved back towards mayhem. A major blast - possibly a suicide attack - rocked Islamabad right near the mosque, protesters went wild triggering police response, multiple people have been killed and the attempt to bring the Capital back to normalcy was again scuttled by extremists.
New reports suggest that as many as 12 15 have already died and the number is expected to rise. According to a recent AP report:
Hundreds of religious students clashed with police and occupied Islamabad’s Red Mosque during its reopening Friday, demanding the return of a pro-Taliban cleric two weeks after an army raid to oust Islamic militants from the complex left more than 100 people dead. Pakistani religious students watch as a colleague paints a wall of the Red Mosque in Islamabad.
A large explosion went off in a market area about a quarter-mile from the mosque, and local media reported several people had died. Police say four people were killed and 30 wounded. On a road outside the mosque, protesters threw stones at an armored personnel carrier and dozens of police in riot gear. After the demonstrators disregarded calls to disperse peacefully, police fired tear gas, scattering the crowd. Earlier, security forces stood by as protesters clambered onto the roof of the mosque and daubed red paint on the walls after forcing a government-appointed cleric assigned to lead prayers to retreat.
The protesters demanded the return of the mosque’s pro-Taliban former chief cleric, Abdul Aziz — who is being detained by the government — and shouted slogans against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Later, a cleric from a seminary associated with the mosque led the prayers. “Musharraf is a dog! He is worse than a dog! He should resign!” students shouted. Some lingered over the ruins of a neighboring girls’ seminary that was demolished by authorities this week. Militants had used the seminary to resist government forces involved in the siege.
Friday’s reopening was meant to help cool anger over the siege, which triggered a flare-up in militant attacks on security forces across Pakistan. Public skepticism still runs high over the government’s accounting of how many people died in the siege, with many still claiming a large number of children and religious students were among the dead. The government says the overwhelming majority were militants. The mosque’s clerics had used thousands of its students in an aggressive campaign to impose Taliban-style Islamic law in the capital. The campaign, which included kidnapping alleged Chinese prostitutes and threatening suicide attacks to defend the fortified mosque, raised concern about the spread of Islamic extremism in Pakistan.
Militants holed up in the mosque compound for a week before government troops launched their assault on July 10, leaving it pocked with bullet holes and damaged by explosions. At least 102 people were killed in the violence. In an act of defiance to authorities’ repainting of the mosque this week in pale yellow, protesters wrote “Lal Masjid” or “Red Mosque” in large Urdu script on the dome of the mosque. They also hoisted a black flag with two crossed swords — meant to symbolize jihad, or holy war.
The crowd shouted support for the mosque’s former deputy cleric, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who led the siege until he was shot and killed by security forces after refusing to surrender. Ghazi was the public face of a vigilante, Islamic anti-vice campaign that had challenged the government’s writ in the Pakistani capital. “Ghazi, your blood will lead to a revolution,” the protesters chanted. Police stood by on the street outside the mosque, but did not enter the courtyard where the demonstration was taking place.
Islamabad commissioner Khalid Pervez said police forces did not want to go inside the mosque in case it led to a clash with protesters, but maintained the situation was under control. He said the reaction of Aziz’s supporters was understandable and predicted things would calm down. Over mosque loudspeakers, protesters vowed to “take revenge for the blood of martyrs.” In a speech at the mosque’s main entrance, Liaqat Baloch, deputy leader of a coalition of hard-line religious parties, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, condemned Musharraf as a “killer” and declared there would be an Islamic revolution in Pakistan.
“Maulana Abdul Aziz is still the prayer leader of the mosque. The blood of martyrs will bear fruit. This struggle will reach its destination of an Islamic revolution. Musharraf is a killer of the constitution. He’s a killer of male and female students. The entire world will see him hang,” Baloch said. Pakistan’s Geo television showed scenes of pandemonium inside the mosque, with dozens of young men in traditional Islamic clothing and prayers caps shouting angrily and punching the air with their hands. Officials were pushed and shoved by men in the crowd. One man picked up shoes left outside the mosque door and hurled them at news crews recording the scene.
Maulana Ashfaq Ahmed, a senior cleric from another mosque in the city who was assigned by the government to lead the prayers, was quickly escorted from the complex, as protesters waved angry gestures at him. Wahajat Aziz, a government worker who was among the protesters, said officials were too hasty in reopening the mosque. “They brought an imam that people had opposed in the past,” he said. “This created tension in the environment. People’s emotions have not cooled down yet.” Security was tightened in Islamabad ahead of the mosque’s reopening, with extra police taking up posts around the city and airport-style metal detectors put in place at the mosque entrance used to screen worshipers for weapons.
Pictures from BBC.
I ask why mindless Mullahs deem fit to dispatch innocent Muslims to Gory death by explosions and you call that whining??..Im a Facist for asking the Mullah NOT to blow up anyone they feel is unworthy in whatever way??….
Im afraid the Mullah has no moral compass left…
but I guess this is typical of the man who could not bring himself to condemn the mad mullah who shot Zille Huma in cold blood..
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/arc_news.asp?id=9
Shireen Mazari in ‘The News’ opinion section July 25.
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/arc_news.asp?id=9
Mir Jamilur Rahman in ‘The News’ opinion section July 28.
I am not some fan of Hamid Mir but I do agree with him on few points which he mentioned in his latest article, “Liberal Fascism”
tinyurl.com/2wvyw4
the whiners he discussed in his column exist on this forum as well who always claim ,”we are innocent, why do they hate us?”
@ JayJay…
Been a long hard day at work..and I feel like rambling
just a few Observations on what you wrote…
In my personal Opinion (feel free to correct me) …VS Naipul is heavily influenced by his sympathy for those hateful RSS chaps…whose very reason for existance is in opposition to Muslim…
so I would be vary of putting too much credence into what he writes…
he lens is a a bit too jaundiced to say the least…
and in my opinion…these comments from the RSS type Hindus are motivated by frustration that the Muslims have not been ‘abosrbed’ (read subjugated) into the greater Fascist Agenda for India….you may not agree but that is the way I see it…
Also…you are correct in the statement that our historical context starts from 712 onwards and nothing is mentioned of the immense and rich history before us…that plays itself out in many ways..chief among that is the lack of awareness of the rich heritage which we carry…
it is natural to feel a very close affinity to the Arab roots of Islam and to feel pride in that is also not an issue…
however…to be holier than the pope…in my opinin again is not as much influnenced by the lack of historical perspective as much as it is a result of Ziaz pseudo Islamization and the red meat thrown to appease the Mullah in the late 70’s right to the present day…and again…the history taught at school is so terribly out of context that is boggles the mind…
consider the case of Mahmood Ghaznavi…he is presented as this great Islamic Hero for raiding the great temple at Somnaath….
conveniently ignoring that his only purpose was to loot and plunder and to maintain his army….there wasnt much to go around in Ghazni..just that fact that he made war on the Hindu is good enough!
same is the case with naming kids Sikander in Pakistan…he was a idol worshipping heathen for sure…but again…he made the Hindu pay is good enough for us…such is the mental break that we have with out indeginous past….
but having said that…I feel that there is nothing wrong in the Arabization of our names…
I gave my new born son a nice Arab name …and aknowledging that part of our religious heritage is only natural for us….I love Islamic History, Art and poetry….its is rich beyond measure…
but yes…I see agree with your point that this Arabization of our Islam has given us mixed results at best..
a good example are Indonesian and Malaysian Muslims…very and Arabic names…but they are not Arabized and do not suffer from this constant need to out do the Arabs…(although this might be changing as the Mullah is hard at work there as well)…I work and have had the pleasure of working with them so I have a fair idea of this…I often wish we could be like that
These remarks are not very coherent or structured I know but just ramblings..been a looooong day at work
Editorial, The News, July 29, 2007
Lal Masjid redux
The government has a lot of explaining to do after the takeover of Lal Masjid on Friday and the tragic suicide attack that killed at least 15 people in nearby Aabpara Market. Before one gets into asking the questions that need asking, it would be instructive to closely examine the press conference of the interior ministry’s spokesman (who also happens to head the government’s crisis management cell). The spokesman said that the government was taking extensive measures to combat suicide bombing, though what these were exactly was not spelt out. However, it has to be admitted that suicide attacks can never be entirely prevented and that the best way to deal with them is to go after the groups who sponsor them. Given that so many have happened in the space of less than a month suggests that the groups behind them have a relatively large pool of suicide bombers. The view of counter-terrorism experts generally is that the best way to prevent them from happening — and this is from the experience of Israel which has probably had extensive experience of handling such situations — is to target the recruitment process, the groups that motivate people to become suicide bombers and those which provide them with the bomb ingredients, reconnaissance for targets and logistics for carrying out the final attack. It is not clear whether the government and its intelligence apparatus have been doing any of this and if they are profiling the attackers, which could help in preventing new attacks. In fact, it would be fair to say that not much has been heard from the government on the attacks that have happened so far since the Lal Masjid operation, especially with regard to which particular extremist groups may be behind them.
Coming back to what the chief of the crisis management cell said, one would have to agree with his assessment that the law-enforcement agencies had been told time and again that the students of Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa were all “innocent” and that the government has been, since taking some of them into custody, repeatedly told — by none other than the Supreme Court – to release them. To this should be added the point that several government ministers and the ruling party chief had throughout the Lal Masjid stand-off quite clearly said that the students were innocent. This ignored the facts, which were that quite a few of them had taken part in activities that included the forcible closure of shops, kidnapping and abduction of Pakistani and foreign nationals, unlawful occupation of a government building, trying to implement a moral order by force and generally creating a law and order situation. It wasn’t only the Lal Masjid clerics who were involved in these activities but the students as well. In that context it was clearly premature to conclude that all the students were “innocent” and, with due respect, one is constrained to point out that the Supreme Court bench that took suo motu notice of the stand-off should perhaps have not been so insistent on the release of all the students. The reason for this is clear — many of those who refused to pray behind the government appointed prayer leader on Friday, took the law into their own hands and created a law and order situation, happened to be students of the Lal Masjid seminary. Obviously, the written undertaking that the government said it had obtained from all students who surrendered and were released has been blatantly disregarded by these students. This also leads to another question — that what was the great hurry to re-open the mosque so soon? Wouldn’t it have been more prudent to let some time pass and then open it to the public, given the emotion and tensions surrounding it?
The crisis management cell also said something else that was revealing: that the suicide bomber targeted the policemen posted at Aabpara Market and that the rumpus earlier at Lal Masjid may possibly have been a deliberate attempt to draw police and security agencies personnel to Lal Masjid in greater numbers before the attack was to be carried out at Aabpara Market. If the government believes this, then there is a very strong case to arrest those behind the ruckus at Lal Masjid on Friday afternoon and grill them for any links to the suicide attack. In any case, there can be no short-term quick fix to these attacks but a start has to be made — and this will only be done by taking the fight to the groups that finance, recruit, manage, brainwash, train and arm these attackers. Most of them, it can be safely said, operate within the tribal belt or some settled parts of NWFP and the military movement in these areas is perhaps an indication — hopefully — of the government’s resolve to fight these outfits on their own turf.
Last but by no means least, society at large needs to understand that expressing sympathy for suicide attacks (something that a former senior minister of the NWFP government did quite blatantly on a television channel on Friday) creates the kind of environment where suicide attackers find easy targets and operate with impunity. There is unfortunately a lack of national consensus that suicide attacks are wrong and immoral and cannot be justified under any circumstance. Those who think they can express support for suicide attacks — even if conditionally — and remain absolved of being extremists and supporters of terrorism need to think again. There is a very fine line between supporting suicide bombings in principle and doing it materially and financially. Of course, we have the Zia era to thank for the emergence of the sort of mentality that is supportive of such extremist actions.
@ Wajahat…
yes…this was a well known ‘dispute’ between two ‘Clerics’ in the NWFP…two points:
1. They squabble like the catholic and protestant churches of the Medieval times…and truly see themselves as the Medieval Bishop saw himself…a the sole point around which life must revolve..just as it did for he european peasentry…
They have this secret fantasy of replicating that system…
2. and ofcourse..another act that Proves that the Mullah thinks that the only way to attain paradise is to stack up as many bodies as he possibly can..
(by this standard…they should declare Joh Rambo or Van Damme as their next Mufti)….
did Data Gunj bux declare Jihad on Hazrat Shahbaz Qalandar (please excuse my timelines…this is just to make a point) or his followers…
those were the days when even Guru Nanak was educated at a Madrassa…..
how beautiful is that…..how strong is that…
“..but to slowly and surely subjugate your thought and tongue….”
Excellent point, D_a_n.
VS Naipaul (“Beyond Belief” and “Among the Believers”) has brilliantly captured this dilemma of convert nations, such as Pakistan, when we try to out-do Arabs in the adoption of Arab culture, language and behaviour in our quest to be “purer Muslims”. The aim of us, coverts, is to cut out our cultural roots, rub out our history and disown our heritage in order to be more Catholic than the Pope, so to speak.
Khuda/Allah Hafiz dilemma is entrenched in our national psyche. For instance, we have named our military missiles on the names of invaders. We could have named the missiles on Bhatti, Sarwar, or Minhas) if the indigenous heroes of far past, such as Poras, Ashoka, etc were not acceptable as a good 90 per cent or more of Pakistanis have Indian blood running in them . But, no, even heroes have to be imported. Our history books don’t go beyond 712 AD as if the subcontinent did not exist as a civilized country before that. Our names are becoming more Arabian with each passing generation.
Anyway, I will leave this issue for another time as I have digressed from the main subject of the Lal Masjid and the Islamic rebellion against the state and people of Pakistan. Now, if some readers have their way, we are supposed to build our opinions on the basis of a vague RAND report as it fits nicely into our compulsive attitude of hiding under the shield of “victim-hood” by blaming the ‘infidels’, the ‘secularist’, the ‘liberal’, the ‘rationalist’, the West, the ‘educated’, the ‘thinking’, anyone but us, for the ills of our own creation. What next? We will be quoting The Protocols of Elders of Zionism (our traditional last refuge to muddy the debate) to shrug off the dire threats from within.
It is time for some hard questioning and critical self-analysis.
The one good thing the Lal Masjid protesters, students of the seminary who survived, did was to thrash the JI delegation and made them leave the mosque. The JI delegation had to pray outside the mosque, led by SirajulHaq.
Though the religious parties maintained criminal silence during the real standoff, they became hyperactive after it was over to win over the students and LM sympathizers to their side. Though these parties never supported the Ghazi brothers and their methodologies, now we have Mr. Liaqat Baloch proclaiming that Abdul Aziz is still the imam of LM, and army / govt. are guilty of a massacre. And we also had Qazi sahab threatening that if the govt did not open the mosque by Friday, his men would storm it and pray there. But they could not, because the innocent students of the Jamias were also there to display their innocence last Friday.