Battle lines drawn at radical mosque
PAKISTANI security forces detained about 40 religious radicals today in Islamabad, where two policemen were being held hostage in a mosque by hardline clerics and students.
Inside the compound of Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, the cleric leading the student movement belted out defiant statements from a loudspeaker, while his followers waved wooden sticks from the walls and rooftops.
"We are ready to fight, we are ready to die, but we will not back down," Maulana Abdul Aziz cried out, as the students responded with chants of "Jihad".
The radicals were detained in different parts of the city, away from the mosque, to try to prevent further trouble, said Deputy Commissioner Chaudhry Mohammed Ali, a senior administrator in the capital.
"We have completed our preparations and once we get the go-ahead from higher-ups we will launch a crackdown," Mr Ali said, as police blocked streets surrounding the mosque in the heart of the normally sedate capital.
Students had spread rocks and steel rods across the road leading to the mosque, in anticipation of an assault that the government appeared reluctant to order as the compound also houses a madrasa for girls called Jamia Hafsa.
"The government is not planning any operation against Jamia Hafsa or the mosque," said retired Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, spokesman for the Interior Ministry.
"We will not let things get out of control. They are not enemies, but our own people, and we hope this will be settled through dialogue."
The mosque has been at odds with the authorities since January, when female students occupied a library next to the mosque's compound to protest against the destruction of several mosques illegally constructed on state-owned land.
The government has sought to appease the radicals by telling them their grievances will be dealt with, and a leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League said last month all issues had been settled amicably through negotiation.
But on Saturday, the students snatched four plainclothes police, and demanded the authorities release 11 comrades held in detention.
Two police were freed a day later in what a senior cleric called a "gesture of goodwill", and a court in Islamabad granted bail for five of the detained students. But police said the bail money was not paid so the students were still being held.
Two students were released today, but a cleric from the mosque said the remaining two police would be let go only when all the detained students were freed.
"The two policemen are in our custody and it is very clear that as soon as our people come out, we will release them," Abdul Rashid Ghazi said.
The radicals of Lal Masjid have briefly abducted police before, but their anti-vice campaign in the city caused the biggest stir.
Burqa-clad female students raided a nearby bordello, briefly detaining three women, and they put pressure on owners of music and video shops to shut their businesses.
Visitors to the Lal Masjid compound have seen a few men armed with Kalashnikovs, while most students wield staves.
Last month, Maulana Aziz threatened to unleash suicide bombers if the government used force to stop his movement from establishing its own Islamic sharia courts.
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Mosque threatens Jihad against Pakistan gov't
A defiant cleric warned Pakistan authorities that a raid on his mosque where two policemen are being held captive by radical Islamic students would lead to a holy war against the government, as police detained dozens of students.
The abduction tops months of bold challenges by the Red Mosque to the authority of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's secular, military government.
Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said there were no plans to move against the mosque or a radical Islamic seminary attached to it in downtown Islamabad, adding Sunday that use of force to free the captured officers was a "last option."
But chief cleric at the mosque, Maulana Abdul Aziz, said police detained about 200 students and warned that a show of force by authorities would result in "jihad," or holy war.
Cheema said some people were "intercepted" to stop them from going to the Red Mosque, but they were expected to be freed later. He did not elaborate.
The two policemen were abducted Friday by students. Abdul Rashid Ghazi, a cleric at the mosque, said earlier Sunday they will only be released in return for the freedom of nine school students who are in government custody.
"Aziz has declared that if the government uses force we will wage jihad," Ghazi told reporters at the mosque.
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Pertinent Links:
1) Battle lines drawn at radical mosque
2) Mosque threatens Jihad against Pakistan gov't
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