NYT : Battle at Mosque in Pakistan Continues

Battle at Mosque in Pakistan Continues

By SOMINI SENGUPTA and SALMAN MASOOD | Published: July 11, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 11 — The battle for the Red Mosque, the fiery epicenter of Pakistan’s religious right, went on today for a second full day, as Pakistani forces battled with die-hards holed up in basement rooms of the sprawling compound. The clatter of gunfire made plain that even after 36 hours of an operation led by Pakistani special forces, the fight had not yet been won.

Nor was there any more clarity about what exactly had transpired over the last two days, not even how many of those who had been inside were fighters versus hostages. Government officials had said in the past that there were up to 60 hard-core militants inside, who had surrounded themselves with civilian shields, women and children among them.

All told, 86 men and women and 30 children “came out” of the compound, the military spokesman, Gen. Waheed Arshad, told reporters at a press briefing this afternoon, but the nature of their involvement in the fighting remained a mystery. “They’re being screened,” is all he would say.

The clashes also left 10 security forces dead and 33 injured. At least 50 of those inside had been killed, including the leader of the organization, Abdur Rashid Ghazi, the spokesman said, adding that a final death toll could only be established when the site had been fully mopped up.

The bigger mystery lay in how the Pakistani President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, would handle the potentially grave repercussions of the Red Mosque standoff and the religious radicals that have taken root in his country. The standoff comes at a time when pro-democracy protests have dogged his administration before elections expected this year and Islamic extremists, including Al Qaeda and the Taliban, have widened their influence in the country.

Despite the clamor for democracy and the general’s mixed performance in fighting the extremists, the Bush administration has steadfastly backed the general. The State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, credited the government Tuesday for “exercising a great deal of patience.”

General Musharraf’s domestic supporters, too, described the operation as an example of restraint amid great provocation, with the state minister for information, Tariq Azeem, calling it a demonstration of the government’s “resolve to root out terrorism and extremism.”

But already there were signs of fresh anger and discontent from Islamist elements over the assault, and the potential for a blowback. Liaqut Baloch, a parliamentarian with the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party called it a case of “mishandling” by the government. “This issue could have been handled by negotiations and dialogue,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “It was an engineered plan to appease the Americans and Western countries.”

Abdul Malik, an influential cleric, told reporters Tuesday afternoon that the assault was a ploy to cleanse the capital of “turbaned students.”

In the Northwest Frontier Province, meanwhile, roadside explosions injured 11 security personnel and six civilians Tuesday, while rioters set ablaze offices of two international relief organizations in remote northern Battagram district, officials said.

The Red Mosque had enjoyed decades of government backing, but lately become a source of great embarrassment for the Musharraf regime. The religious affairs minister, Ijaz Ul-Huq, told the privately owned Geo television Tuesday night that it had become a sanctuary for militants from other parts of the country.

“I with much regret have to say that this was a hub for all types of terrorists,” he said. “Anyone involved in any unlawful activity anywhere used to get protection here.”

He did not explain why the government, armed with this knowledge, had not taken action until a week ago.

A network of buildings that took up two city blocks, the Red Mosque is comprised of the mosque, the seminary, a public library occupied by the seminary students, and the homes of Mr. Ghazi and his elder brother, Mohammed Abdul Aziz, who ran the organization. Mr. Ghazi was killed Tuesday while hiding in a basement with some of his fighters; Mr. Aziz was arrested last week while trying to flee the compound in a burqa.

The two men had used their charges for months to goad authorities into imposing Islamic law, or sharia, in the capital and throughout Pakistan. Trouble began to simmer in January when the women students occupied the library. Mr. Aziz threatened suicide attacks if the government tried to raid the mosque.

Having set up a sharia court in the compound, the mosque issued a fatwa against a government minister, after she was shown in newspaper photographs embracing a parachuting instructor in France. Students ranged around the capital as vigilante vice squads, warning vendors against selling music and movies, in a crude impersonation of the Taliban. Then, in late June, in what apparently became an embarrassing diplomatic row, seminary students kidnapped six Chinese women and a Chinese man, from an acupuncture clinic, which they claimed was a brothel.

For over a week, militants had been holed up inside the mosque compound, engaging security forces in gunbattles. Last minute efforts to negotiate a deal with Mr. Ghazi proved fruitless. Even early Tuesday, it seems, the delegation of clerics and government officials were themselves unable to agree on the terms of the deal.

Abdul Hameed Rabbani, a cleric who was part of the delegation, said the government had insisted that Mr. Ghazi face charges. Mr. Azeem, of the information ministry, said Mr. Ghazi insisted on clemency for everyone inside, including foreigners.

How many foreigners may have been inside remains a mystery. The military said they had yet to identify the dead.

A half hour after talks broke down, at about 4:30 a.m., came the big assault. A series of deafening explosions were followed by a black plume of smoke rising to the sky. Throughout the day, more explosions were followed by the rattle of small arms fire and by early afternoon, heavy bursts of machine gun fire. They grew less frequent by evening. But even this morning, there were gunbattles in what the military called the last bastion of die-hard fighters.

Critics describe the storming of the mosque as an inevitable consequence of allowing radical Islamist organizations to blossom, even after his post-Sept. 11 pledge to curb extremism.

“He allowed the Red Mosque people to become so powerful that they are in a position to militarily contest Pakistani troops,” said Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Lahore-based political scientist teaching this year at Johns Hopkins University. “Second would be that some sympathy that he enjoyed among some Islamic groups have totally disappeared.”

Samina Ahmed, South Asia director of the International Crisis Group, said of the rebellion inside the Lal Masjid: “the chickens have come home to roost.”

“There’s been no attempt to close down jihadi madrassas, no attempt to disband the network of banned jihadi organizations, no attempt made to adopt a comprehensive approach to eradicating militancy,” she argued.