WORLD / Asia-Pacific
At least 106 dead at Pakistan mosque
(AP)
Updated: 2007-07-12 06:26
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - President Pervez Musharraf's government warned
Wednesday it would not tolerate militancy at any of Pakistan's thousands
of religious schools after the army subdued Islamic extremists holding
the Red Mosque. At least 106 people died in the weeklong siege and street
battles.
Hours later, Al-Qaida's No. 2 released a videotape calling on Pakistanis
to join a holy war against Musharraf's government to avenge the army
assault.
"Rigged elections will not save you, politics will not save you, and
bargaining, bootlicking negotiations with the criminals, and political
maneuvers will not save you," a bespectacled and white-clad Ayman
al-Zawahri said in the video, which was subtitled in English.
"Musharraf and his hunting dogs have rubbed your honor in the dirt in the
service of the Crusaders and the Jews," he said. The video was released
by al-Qaida's multimedia branch, as-Sahab. Its authenticity could not
immediately be confirmed, but two U.S.-based terrorism monitoring groups
also reported it.
Authorities said at least 106 people were killed overall since the
violence began July 3 at the Red Mosque complex, which includes two
schools- one for girls and one for boys. The dead included 10 soldiers,
one police ranger and a number of civilians killed by crossfire in
initial street fighting last week.
Among the dead was a pro-Taliban cleric, Abdul Rashid Ghazi.
Seventy-three bodies - believed to be those of the mosque's die-hard
defenders - were found by Pakistani troops clearing the sprawling mosque
complex of mines, booby traps and other weaponry.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said commandos searching the mosque found no
corpses of women and children, although seven or eight of the bodies had
been burned beyond recognition, apparently by the militants' gasoline
bombs.
"The major group of women was all together and came out all together," he
said, referring to 27 women, a 9-year-old boy and two girls, aged 3 and
5, who emerged from the mosque Tuesday.
The extremists had been using the mosque as a base to send out
radicalized students to enforce their version of Islamic morality,
including abducting alleged prostitutes and trying to "re-educate" them
at the compound.
The elite Special Services Group commandos went in after unsuccessful
attempts to get the mosque's militants to surrender to a weeklong siege
mounted by the government following deadly street clashes with armed
supporters of the mosque on July 3.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz warned the government would act against any
other madrassa, or religious school, found to be involved in militancy.
"Militancy cannot be promoted, period," he told reporters. "The law will
take its course, as the law took its course here."
Musharraf vowed five years ago to regulate Pakistan's thousands of
religious schools, but concerns have only grown that some are used as
sanctuaries or training sites for militants - including Taliban
insurgents fighting in Afghanistan.
Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim conceded it was possible that
other madrassas in Pakistan could be harboring weaponry like the Red
Mosque, but added that the assault had sent a strong message that the
government "meant business."
"We need to be now much more vigilant, but I hope they (extremist
madrassas) have got the message that if they are in involved in such
activities, they will have to face action," he said.
Students at the mosque's male and female schools ranged in age from as
young as 4 to their early 20s. The female school also housed some widows
and children left homeless by the 2005 earthquake that killed more than
80,000 people in northern Pakistan.
Relatives of students who had been in the mosque waited behind army
barricades and inquired at morgues or a sports stadium where authorities
set up an information center for those seeking missing loved ones.
"Oh God! help me find my son!" said Mohammed Ajmal, 39, who lost contact
with 14-year-old Mohammed Amjad four days ago. "I went to all hospitals.
I contacted police and the government, but I have no information about my
son," he said, raising his arms to the sky.
Ajmal, who sent Amjad from their remote hometown in northern Pakistan a
year ago to study the Quran at a religious school associated with the Red
Mosque, was among about 100 parents searching for their loved ones at the
sports stadium.
The government says 1,300 people, including men, women and children,
escaped or otherwise left the compound after the army siege began July 3.
It followed six months of mounting tension amid a vigilante campaign by
the mosque's leaders to kidnap policemen and alleged prostitutes in a bid
to impose Taliban-style morality on the capital.
Lying in his hospital bed at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences,
Bakhat Fazil recounted how he was hit by bullets in the shoulder and leg
when he rushed to the mosque to rescue his three daughters trapped inside.
He later learned his daughters, all under age 10, had been freed and were
safe.
Fazil said he sent his daughters to study, not to become militants, and
that they were prevented from leaving the seminary by extremists.
"I know many parents begged for the release of their children," said the
38-year-old taxi driver. "I curse those who didn't free innocent women
and children, and who held them against their will."
The casualties at the Red Mosque could further turn public opinion
against Musharraf, who already faces a backlash for his bungled attempts
to fire the country's chief justice. But it also pushed the controversy
over the judge out of a harsh media spotlight and prompted a fresh show
of support from Washington.
About 500 people chanting "Death to Musharraf!" rallied for an hour
Wednesday in the northwest frontier city of Peshawar.
"This (mosque attack) is part of our government's action against
religious elements to please America," said Shabbir Khan, a lawmaker from
an opposition Islamic party, at the demonstration.
About 15 other Islamic opposition lawmakers gathered in front of the
Supreme Court in Islamabad, blaming Musharraf for Pakistan's troubles,
including the mosque attack, and calling for his resignation.
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