Thousands Gather for Radical Cleric's Funeral
The siege of the radical Red Mosque in Pakistan ended in a bloodbath after troops stormed the building . The official death toll is 73 but that number could rise. Cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi was killed in the assault and now looks set for martyrdom. He had hoped his death would spark an Islamist revolution.
As Abdul Rashid Ghazi's coffin was lowered into the grave on Thursday, mourners broke the glass lid and tore off the white cloth to make sure the body was really that of the 43-year-old radical cleric. Ghazi was killed after troops stormed the Red Mosque in the Pakistan capital Islamabad on Tuesday. His older brother, the mosque's chief cleric Abdul Aziz, led the prayers at the funeral attended by around 2,000 mourners in their home village in the eastern Punjab province in central Pakistan.
While Abdul Aziz was caught trying to flee the mosque last week disguised in a woman's burqa, Ghazi and other hardcore militants stayed put and mounted a last stand. After soldiers stormed the mosque in the early hours of Tuesday morning many of the militants including Ghazi were killed. An eyewitness told the Pakistan daily Dawn that he had seen hundreds of bodies covered in white clothes on the floor of the mosque compound.
The Red Mosque, situated near the government district, had been a hotbed of religious extremism for some time, and over the last six months students at a Koran school connected to the mosque had been trying to impose Taliban-style morality through kidnappings and threats.
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