Chaos in Pakistani capital city as 'militants' holed up inside a Mosque clash with Government forces - 10 dead, 150+ injured

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

By Syed Irfan Raza and Munawar Azeem (Dawn)

ISLAMABAD, July 3: Paramilitary Rangers and riot police fought a daylong running gunbattle with hundreds of heavily armed and well-entrenched militants around their stronghold of Lal Masjid as a six-month-long standoff between mosque’s radicals and the authorities exploded into a major clash on Tuesday, leaving at least 10 people dead and more than 150 injured.

Dozens of the injured suffered multiple bullet wounds, and the condition of some of them being critical, doctors feared the death toll might rise.

It was perhaps the worst, and the bloodiest, incident in Islamabad’s history as never before such a large number of armed militants had taken on the authorities — and that too in the heart of the capital.

The trouble started around 11.30am with some madressah militants trying to occupy a nearby government building, and within no time a fierce clash broke out between the armed seminary students and security troops. Sporadic clashes had continued till past midnight when unconfirmed reports suggested a massive security operation to sweep the Lal Masjid of armed militants, raising the possibility of more armed clashes and larger casualty.

A high-level meeting of top government, security and intelligence officials chaired by President General Pervez Musharraf reviewed the situation as clashes continued in and around Lal Masjid. It was not clear whether a firm decision had been taken about a full-fledged operation. However, Information Minister Mohammed Ali Durrani severely criticised the Madressah and mosque management and held them directly responsible for the deaths and destruction, and indicated that they alone would be responsible for any further trouble.

But even before that, by the time the night fell on Islamabad, a paramilitary soldier, a photojournalist, four students of the Islamic seminary and a number of passers-by were dead, almost all of them being victims of high velocity bullets. Among those injured during the clashes were several members of the Rangers and police, a number of journalists, dozens of Madressah students and many local residents who were caught in the crossfire.

As sporadic clashes continued throughout the day, ambulances belonging to the Capital Development Authority (CDA), Edhi Trust and other relief agencies kept shuttling between the venue of the pitched battle and various hospitals. A number of fire-fighting trucks were also in the area, but despite the presence of massive security force, they were unable to penetrate through the crowd of armed Islamic students, who set the nearby building of Environment Ministry and a government’s Estate Office on fire, and set ablaze almost all the vehicles parked there.

Even though the Rangers had remained deployed in around Lal Masjid and the adjoining women’s seminary, Hafsa, for several days, Tuesday’s clashes gave no sign of a planned operation. Amid contradictory versions about the beginning of the trouble given by rival sides, several eyewitnesses told Dawn that violence started after a large number of Lal Masjid students tried to storm the Estate Office and, during the scuffle, snatched a number of assault rifles from policemen posted there. Soon after, several hundred students of the women madressah came out and marched up to the government offices in the area to register their protest against the authority’s plans for a security operation.

In the meantime, paramilitary troops were rushed in to intensify patrolling. Tempers had already started to flare up. As more provocation came from inside the mosque in the form of rocks and bricks targeting the patrolling Rangers, the riot police responded with heavy tear-gassing. The retaliation came from inside the seminary in the form of dozens of rounds from automatic guns. One such bullet hit a Ranger’s lance naik, Mubarik Hussain, who died in hospital. Within no time, the Rangers started firing back with automatic guns, with the area between the nearby residential quarters and a few government buildings and Lal Masjid looking like a battled-ground.

As several people were injured on the both sides, including many girl students, better sense prevailed for a while, with security troops withdrawing to their nearby camps, or in the sidelanes. This proved counter-productive as hundreds of supporters of Lal Masjid joined in from two nearby mosques. The armed seminary students were freely roaming the streets, not only flashing their Kalashnikovs and other automatic weapons with straps of magazines and grenades wrapped around their waist, some of them were even wearing gas-masks with many other carrying home-made petrol bombs in both their hands.

As the madressah students tried to gain more ground in the area and started to gradually move in two directions on the main road, Rangers and riot police made a forceful comeback, this time with larger force. Soon they started firing tear-gas shells and bullets. The madressah militants, who had taken position on the mosque’s roof and behind several trees, returned fire at will. So abrupt was this second round of clash that many journalists and local residents and onlookers were caught off-guard. Several of them found themselves in the midst of the cross-fire.

Photojournalist Javed Khan fell victim to a flying bullet and died before any help arrived. Another cameraman, Israr Ahmed of the CNBC, was hit three times by automatic gunfire. Till our going to the press, doctors were trying hard to save his life. Another senior journalist, Absar Alam of Geo, was injured when he was hit by a stray stone, but his condition was stable.

As clashes continued, emergency was declared in three main hospitals where doctors and paramedical staff remained busy throughout the day, trying to save lives with whatever limited resources were available to them.

Late in the evening, a number of members of the National Assembly form the religious groups and some other people tried to mediate, and even attempted to persuade Lal Masjid’s top cleric Maulan Abdul Rasheed Ghazi and others to back down, but without any success. The Lal Masjid brigade that had been on a path of defiance since January, when its members along with Hafsa girls had occupied a nearby children’s library and later abducted a number of policemen and private citizens, was by now giving out a clear message that they were prepared to fight it out, even if it meant heavy casualty on both sides.

There are reports that the in-charge of Lal Masjid, Maulana Abdul Aziz, and his younger brother Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi had gone underground before the clash started.

Tension was high in the area till the filing of this report as armed and baton-wielding students of Lal Masjid who were reinforced by students of other seminaries continued to occupy the road in front of the mosque.

According to interior ministry, some 125 students of Jamia Hafsa came out of the mosque and snatched weapons and walkie-talkies from four police personnel deployed at the Estate Office building. The police force fired tear-gas shells to disperse the militants, but the students opened fire on police and Rangers.

The ministry issued a press release saying the government had shown maximum restraint to prevent injuries, particularly to girl students.

It was observed that the Lal Masjid brigade was equipped with 3mm riffles, Kalashnikovs, 222 rifles, hand-grenades, petrol bombs, tear-gas shells and light weapons.

During the whole episode, hardline ulema of Lal Masjid continued to give instructions to the students on loudspeakers and warned the government that suicide attacks would be carried out to avenge attacks by security forces.

AFTER a meeting of the federal cabinet, the Islamabad administration imposed a curfew around Lal Masjid on late Tuesday night.

At around 2am, army troops from 111 Brigade were deployed around the Lal Masjid area, indicating that an operation against the militants was imminent.

All hospitals in the twin cities have been put on alert, doctors have been called on duty and ambulances readied to shift casualties.

http://www.dawn.com/2007/07/04/top1.htm

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

At least 100 students of Lal Masjid surrender

4 Jul 2007, 1341 hrs IST,PTI

ISLAMABAD: At least 100 students of the radical Lal Masjid here surrendered on Wednesday before a fresh deadline set by the Pakistani government ended even as the two hardline clerics along with several other students remained holed up inside.

The surrender came as President Pervez Musharraf announced a reward of Rs 5,000 for every student who surrenders besides pardoning them and giving travel facilities to all of them.

Pakistani officials said around 100 male and female students of the madrassa have surrendered. Before that six girl students of the seminary came out and were taken away by their parents.

The government was expected to fix a new deadline after a meeting of federal cabinet in view of the "mass desertions".

Some students who spoke to waiting journalists complained that they were being pressurised not to leave by mosque authorities.

The two radical clerics, Abdul Aziz and Abdul Rahid Ghazi, were still defiant inside the mosque along with some hardline students and were resisting efforts to surrender.

Reports also said that the bodies of three students who were killed by army snipers were lying inside the mosque.

The bloody stand off between the mosque students and the security forces surrounding the seminary has till now claimed 21 lives and injured over 150.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/At_leas...how/2174200.cms

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Make that 700...

About 700 followers of a radical mosque surrendered Wednesday as government troops with armored personnel carriers tightened their stranglehold on the building a day after clashes killed at least 16 people, officials said.

However, Minister of Information Mohammed Ali Durrani said that "a few hundred" militants could remain inside the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, whose clerics have challenged the government by trying to impose a Taliban-style version of Islamic law in the capital.

One of those who decided to give up, 15-year-old Maryam Qayyeum, said many were not leaving the seminary.

"They are happy. They only want martyrdom. They don't want to go home," she said.

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/myfox/pages/Ne...mp;pageId=3.4.1

[one...two...tree 2,762]

...clerics have challenged the government by trying to impose a Taliban-style version of Islamic law in the capital.

Don't they know that type of thinking is so 'yesterday'?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

A top Islamist militant commander with extensive fighting experience in Afghanistan has based himself with 40 fighters inside the radical Lal Masjid where at least 21 people have been killed in gunbattles between madrassa students and security forces.

The unnamed commander belonging to Mehsud tribe and having vast fighting experience in the restive Afghanistan has managed to enter Jamia Hafsa with a group of 40 fighters to support the students of Lal Masjid against the government, a source privy to the masjid said.

The jihadis who entered the masjid are well-equipped and well trained for situation like this, the source was quoted as saying by 'The Post' daily.

One of the brothers of a Member of National Assembly from Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) is also accompanying the commander to strengthen the hands of radical students.

The Lal Masjid administration would be in a better position to take on the security forces after putting the girl students holed up inside the madrassa in safe locations, sources said.

Meanwhile, the government deployed the army and imposed curfew around the Lal Masjid early on Wednesday asking the clerics and militant students of the mosque to surrender along with their weapons.

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1108044

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

[Charuhans 0]

"The chickens have come home to roost". The process was started by the dictator Zia in the 1980's who was blinded by hate for India, raised the monster of islamic terrorism in the sub-continent. Pakistan planned and hoped to see whats happening today in Islamabad to happen in New Delhi. Well, Time has taken its revenge on Pakistan for its philosophy of hate ...

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Business as usual.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Business as usual.

Actually, it is not. This is a direct strike by Islamists at the Pakistani political establishment in the heart of the establishment itself. In pop culture terms, this is a strike at the Death Star. This isn't business as usual at all. So far the response from the Pakistani political establishment has been timid, and given their capacity for ruthlesness against political opponents, I can't help but wonder why.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

This is hilarious. Breaking news on dawn.com - big poobah of Lal Masjid arrested while trying to escape wearing a BURQA!

Lal Masjid Khatib Maulana Aziz arrested in burqa with wife

ISLAMABAD, July 4 (AFP) - Pakistani security forces arrested Maulana Abdul Aziz, Khatib of Lal Masjid in the heart of Islamabad, as he tried to flee while disguised in an all-covering women's burqa on Wednesday, officials said. Also arrested was his wife Umme Hussam who was heading Jamia Hafsa, private tv channels reported.

Maulana Abdul Aziz was detained as he left the complex amid a crowd of women wearing similar Islamic attire, who were surrendering a day after bloody clashes outside the building left 16 people dead. “I can confirm his arrest. He was trying to escape with the girls and was wearing a burqa,” Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani told AFP.

Television footage showed security officials dragging the bearded Aziz towards a black car after his arrest and being dumped in a black Toyota Corolla before being driven away. Officials said he was caught in a screening centre set up in a school near the mosque to check people leaving the mosque. Hundreds of female students at the mosque surrendered on Wednesday along with their male counterparts, but while the men were detained the women were allowed to go back to their homes.

“We caught Abdul Aziz when he was trying to escape the mosque clad in a burqa. He did not offer any resistance,” added a top security official involved in the capture. “He was the last in a group of women all wearing the same clothes. He was wearing a burqa that also covered his eyes,” the official said on condition of anonymity. “Our men spotted his unusual demeanour.

The rest of the girls looked like girls but he was taller and had a pot belly.

” However, there was still no sign of Aziz's brother, the mosque's deputy leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi, believed to be inside the mosque with about 1,000 diehards. Security officials involved in the operation said more than 1,200 had surrendered by about 9 p.m. local times .(Posted @ 21:25 PST)

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

11 killed in Pak suicide car bomb attack

A suicide car bomber attacked a Pakistani military convoy in a troubled tribal region bordering Afghanistan yesterday, killing 11 people including six soldiers, security officials said. The incident comes after clerics at a radical Islamabad mosque vowed suicide attacks in revenge for clashes with security forces which left 16 people dead including eight Islamist students.

The bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into the convoy near a checkpost at Mir Ali, a town in North Waziristan region, two officials in the area said on condition of anonymity.

"The suicide bomber was blown to pieces and his car was totally destroyed" one of the officials told AFP. The targeted military vehicle was also badly damaged.

Five soldiers and four civilian bystanders were killed instantly by the blast while one civilian and one soldier died later in hospital, the official said.

Two civilians with serious shrapnel wounds were still in the hospital.

Chief Pakistani military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said he had so far received reports that four soldiers were killed and six injured, two critically, in an attack in Mir Ali.

http://www.thedailystar.net/2007/07/05/d70705013825.htm

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Business as usual.

Actually, it is not. This is a direct strike by Islamists at the Pakistani political establishment in the heart of the establishment itself. In pop culture terms, this is a strike at the Death Star. This isn't business as usual at all. So far the response from the Pakistani political establishment has been timid, and given their capacity for ruthlesness against political opponents, I can't help but wonder why.

Business as usual for a 'death cult'. Only the times and places change.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Business as usual for a 'death cult'. Only the times and places change.

The reason this time and place is of interest is because Pakistan has 'da bomb'.

[Ban Hammer 13,352]

Business as usual for a 'death cult'. Only the times and places change.

The reason this time and place is of interest is because Pakistan has 'da bomb'.

yeah but india has you as "condom man"

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...p;#entry1022877

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Business as usual.

Actually, it is not. This is a direct strike by Islamists at the Pakistani political establishment in the heart of the establishment itself. In pop culture terms, this is a strike at the Death Star. This isn't business as usual at all. So far the response from the Pakistani political establishment has been timid, and given their capacity for ruthlesness against political opponents, I can't help but wonder why.

A better analogy than "Star Wars" series is the original 10-hour miniseries "V" (broadcast in May 1983 and May 1984)--in which case, it actually is BAU.

Maybe because there are police, paramilitary and armed forces personnel openly sympathetic to the Lal Masjid; moving against it would be moving against them (they did this in Bangladesh against the Razarbagh Police Station and Pilkhana EPR barracks--and gave the Mukti Bahini plenty of personnel who knew how to handle arms)