Backlash grows in Pakistan over mosque operation
Islamabad - Pakistani security forces were placed on high alert Tuesday to deal with a growing backlash by Islamic extremists and members of the general public over the storming by troops of Islamabad's Red Mosque and adjoining religious school. Thousands of people, some of them armed, took to the streets in cities in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
Three bombings apparently carried out in retaliation for the mosque operation also killed a policeman and injured several more in the province, news reports said.
"Security has been further intensified all over the country, including in Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta, Lahore, Karachi and other regions," Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said in the capital.
Additional police, paramilitary and army forces were deployed at entry and exit points in major cities while stringent vehicle checks were also reportedly introduced.
At a high-level meeting with government and security officials in Islamabad, President Pervez Musharraf also expressed concern about possible countrywide disturbances by Islamists.
The assault on the mosque by special forces was launched after the failure early Tuesday of last-ditch surrender negotiations with clerics and heavily-armed militants barricaded inside.
The operation continued through the day and was thought to have killed scores and possibly hundreds of people following a week-long siege of the complex, which began when students attacked a police checkpoint.
One of two cleric brothers who ran the mosque and seminary, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, also died in the fighting. The other was arrested last week while trying to flee.
"We will fight until martyrdom (death) but the people will take revenge from the rulers," Ghazi told the Aaj news channel by telephone before he died in a cross-fire inside the seminary.
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