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OPINION

Lal Masjid ushers Pak Talibanization
VAZEERUDDIN

Lal Masjid, the oldest mosque in Pakistan’s made-to-order capital, Islamabad, may well have opened the country’s route to Talibanisation. The clerics at the mosque as well the thousands of men and women students of its attached seminary have taken upon themselves the task of eliminating ‘un-Islamic activities’ from the capital’s society. They are regularly raiding homes, shops and offices, wherever they sniff ‘un-Islamic activities’ that range from sale of CDs and VCDs to massage parlours. In their single-minded devotion to keep the capital free of ‘vices’ they have not spared even nationals of China, Pakistan’s most steadfast supporter and provider of most things nuclear.

In a mid-night swoop lathi-wielding students of the seminary attached to the mosque kidnapped seven Chinese, six of them women, and two Pakistani guards at a Chinese acupuncture centre in Islamabad (some reports described it as a massage parlour; the clerics dubbed it a ‘brothel)’ because of the alleged ‘immoral’ and ‘vulgar’ activities allegedly being carried there. It may be added that not only the male but also the female students of the madrassa at the mosque are trained to use the Kalashnikov rifle.

The ‘vice squad’ of Lal Masjid held the Chinese captives for hours, without any fear of the police. Despite frequent stand-offs with the local authorities over a host of issues like land-grab by the mosque, illegal detention of policemen and openly preaching jihad, no one in authority bothered ( or dared?) to take action against anyone from the mosque or the madrassa (segregated into male and female sections) attached to it.

Obviously, the authorities do not mind the furore over the mosque as it only helps to divert public’s attention from the snowballing movement against Gen Pervez Musharraf, following the sacking of the chief justice of the Supreme Court. The knighthood of Salman Rushdie is another welcome diversion for the government with participation by many Pakistani ministers, beginning with the prime minister, who himself is living with the embarrassment of a ‘snub’ from the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice.

Undoubtedly, the Chinese were not amused by the madrassa students’ affront. The military establishment too must have been equally worried as continued illegal detention of Chinese could have developed into a diplomatic row with its ‘all weather friend’ that Islamabad can ill afford. The Chinese suspicions about Pakistan harbouring some of its Muslim extremists from its Sinkiang province would have been revived to add to the woes of Musharraf’s already facing the worst crisis in his life.

The ‘kidnapping’ took place on the eve of interior ministry level talks in Beijing where a hot topic for discussion was extremism. Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao is heading the delegation to the talks being held under the aegis of a Joint Working Group (JWG). Sherpao has a shopping list too; he wants to buy security equipment.

China wants deportation of nine militants of the Islamic movement in Sinkiang, check posts at Sust, visa-free movement and intelligence sharing. Beijing has already conveyed its reservations to Islamabad over the involvement of some ‘hidden hands’ in running the affairs of East Turkistan Islamic Movement. It wants Pakistan to bilaterally explore these ‘hidden hands’ as the Islamic movement was a source of unrest in the autonomous Sinkiang province in north-western China bordering Mongolia and Kazakhstan. It is homeland to Uighurs.

To revert to the Lal Masjid episode. The mosque management released the Chinese after ‘negotiations’ with the government as ‘a gesture’ in support of China-Pakistan friendship. But it advised the Chinese in Pakistan against doing anything un-Islamic like employing women at a centre frequented by men. The libertine in Islamabad will have to watch out as the Lal Masjid is bent upon closing down all dens having already raided a ‘brothel’ some weeks ago and forced its owner to admit her crime.

That the Lal Masjid has been carrying on its own brand of moral crusade for long is well chronicled, as is the conspicuous reluctance or even refusal of the authorities to take any action against it. In the recent past Lal Masjid has taken several policemen as hostage because they had moved too close to the mosque during their patrol duty. Students from the masque’s seminary continued their siege of a children’s library for several weeks. The authorities rescinded their order to demolish the mosque after declaring that it was illegally constructed on land that did not belong to it.

About four years ago, a day-long conference on jihad was held at Lal Masjid, attended by people who had come from different parts of Pakistan. The authorities did not stop anyone from attending the conference even though the country’s ruler was telling the world that Pakistan was eliminating vestiges of terrorism and would not allow territories under its control for jihad or any act of terrorism.

Interestingly, many of the ‘missing’ Pakistanis who are being searched by the authorities on orders from the Supreme Court are said to be from Lal Masjid. These ‘missing’ persons are suspected to be trained terrorists. One of the London bombing accused, Shahzad Tanveer, had made a pilgrimage to Lal Masjid before executing his deadly mission in London in July 2005.

In January this year a suicide bomber had attacked a hotel in Islamabad where the Indian High Commission was to host a Republic Day function. The bomber was reportedly seen at the mosque before the blast. Lal Masjid took a leading part in the violent agitation against the Danish cartoons that had depicted the Prophet.

The British girl, Molly Campbell alias Misbah Rana, was headed for the women’s madrassa at Lal Masjid after her Pakistani father had brought her back from the UK in violation of a court rule.

Calls for taking Musharraf’s life have gone out of this mosque; one was given by Maulana Masood Azhar, freed from Indian prison in exchange for passengers of a hijacked Indian Airlines aircraft Azhar is the founder of Jaish-e-Mohammed, which has since been banned.

Situated in the centre of Islamabad, Lal Masjid has many personnel of the Inter Services Intelligence among its regular worshipers. Many VIPs too have regularly prayed at this mosque; among them was Pakistan’s former military dictator, Zia-ul-Haq, an acknowledged architect of Islamisation of the Pakistani army as well as the civil society.

Zia was close to the former head of Lal Masjid, Maulana Abdullah, an avowed jihadist who was killed inside the mosque in the 1990s. Since then his two sons, Abdul Aziz and Ahmad Rashid Gazi have been running the affairs of Lal Masjid. Gazi had once publicly admitted that he was close to the leaders of Al Qaeda, including Osama bin Laden. Those were the days when Pakistan had adopted an overt policy to support jihad—exporting it with gusto to India as well as Afghanistan.

Circumstances may have made it difficult for Pakistan to lend any overt support to jihadi or terrorist activity, but the fact of the matter is that Pakistan has refused to wind up its terrorist structure that includes many training facilities. An institution like Lal Masjid is probably an important part of carrying out that policy covertly.

The authorities will, therefore, not take any decisive action against Lal Masjid. They have a readymade excuse for inaction: punishing the students there and provoking the clerics will ignite a countrywide fire that will be difficult to douse and will push Pakistan firmly into the lap of Talibanisation.

That is one scenario that every Pakistani pops up at the drop of a hat before gullible Western audiences. Others see it as just a ploy to deflect any pressure to force Pakistan into actually dismantling its entire terror infrastructure.



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