CBC : Pakistan braces for protests, violence after mosque raid

Pakistan braces for protests, violence after mosque raid

CBC News | July 13, 2007

Government forces and police remained on high alert outside mosques and government buildings across Pakistan Friday in the wake of an assault by government forces on a fortress-like mosque in Islamabad earlier this week that killed more than 100 people.

In the country's northwest on Friday, a suicide car bomber killed three police officers at a checkpoint following two suicide attacks the day before in the area.

Officials say Islamic radicals have threatened protests and violence after the government assault Wednesday on Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque.

Al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists in neighbouring Afghanistan have called for attacks, including suicide bombings, against government targets.

The security measures came a day after a six-member coalition of religious parties endorsed a call by 13,000 religious schools for a nationwide protest against the attack.

In a speech on national television Thursday night, Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf promised to eradicate extremism in the country.

"Terrorism and extremism has not ended in Pakistan. But it is our resolve that we will eliminate extremism and terrorism wherever it exists," he said.

"Extremism and terrorism will be defeated in every corner of the country."

Also on Thursday, authorities buried at least 70 fighters killed in a hail of bullets and explosions during the 35-hour commando raid of the mosque.

Several bodies were discovered "burned beyond recognition" inside the mosque and adjacent women's seminary, according to military spokesman Gen. Waheed Arshad.

Focus on Afghan border areas

Security forces were on "high alert" in Quetta city near the Afghan border, police chief Rehmat Ullah Niazi said.

In the country's largest city, Karachi, senior police official Azhar Faruqi said police were deployed outside mosques and other buildings ahead of expected protest after Friday prayers.

There has not yet been a mass popular protest over the week-long siege and subsequent raid, indicating that the crackdown has raised Musharraf's standing among moderate Pakistanis worried about extremism in their nation.

The assault, however, has given hardliners a new rallying cry and sparked calls for revenge attacks.

"God willing, Pakistan will have an Islamic revolution soon," said the Red Mosque's chief cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, at the funeral of his brother, cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who was killed during a last-ditch defence of the mosque.

Aziz, who was arrested last week while trying to slip out of the mosque disguised as a woman, was allowed by authorities to attend the funeral Thursday in Ghazi's ancestral village in Punjab province.

With files from the Associated Press