Malaysia Sun : Pakistan intelligence agencies blamed for Lal Masjid arms dump

Pakistan intelligence agencies blamed for Lal Masjid arms dump

Malaysia Sun | Friday 13th July, 2007 | (ANI)

Islamabad, July 13 : A huge cache of arms and ammunition was found in the Lal Masjid and the Jamia Hafsa, as claimed by the Pakistan Army, but the army did not answer how did these weapons get into the complex.

The government's declaration that the ammunitions belonged to the militants killed in "Operation Silence", even if blindly accepted, is a charge against the functioning of intelligence agencies in the country.

The weapons, which were shown to the media have been found from the mosque premises, include rocker launchers, landmines, Kalashnikovs (AK-47 assault rifles), hand grenades, RPGs (rocket propelled grenades), pistols, guns, loads of rounds, etc.

The government said 10 soldiers, and over 70 militants were killed in the weeklong fighting.

For six months, the halls and rooms of Jamia Hafsa, a women's seminary inside the mosque, were home to a new breed of women Islamic hard-liners wielding batons and assault rifles.

The bullet-riddled walls and roofs of the Lal Masjid's interior tell the story of a fierce battle.

Now, their classrooms and lecture halls are littered with debris that fell from the walls when the buildings came under fire.

Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao has said that the Jamia Hafsa was not a religious seminary but a place from where every kind of terrorist activity was taking place.

He, however, did not bother to explain how it became possible for the arms to be accumulated in the heart of Islamabad. Lal Mosque is located just a few kilometers from the headquarters of the top intelligence agencies - the Inter Services Intelligence and the Intelligence Bureau.

The News reported that there is a general perception in Pakistan abput the role of intelligence agencies in the making of Lal Masjid force.

Contrary to their primary role of doing espionage for the security of the country, the intelligence agencies here have been repeatedly caught napping as they have been more concerned with spying on judges, politicians, bureaucrats and even journalists, the paper reported.