NYT : Call For Protests Over Pakistani Mosque Assault

Call For Protests Over Pakistani Mosque Assault

By REUTERS | Published: July 13, 2007

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A leader of an alliance of Pakistani religious parties condemned on Friday an army assault on a radical mosque, which he described as the darkest chapter in the country's history, and called for protests.

At least 75 supporters of hardline clerics were killed in Tuesday's commando assault on Islamabad's Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, which ended a week-long standoff between militants and the security forces. Ten soldiers were also killed.

"The Lal Masjid incident is the darkest chapter of Pakistan's history," said Ghafoor Haideri, a deputy leader of an alliance of religious parties.

"No dictator has ever done this to his nation," he told a congregation of about 200 people in an Islamabad mosque.

Protests against the assault on the mosque were expected in different parts of the country after Friday prayers.

President Pervez Musharraf, in an address to the nation on Thursday, spoke of his resolve to "eliminate terrorism and extremism from every nook and corner."

Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who led a drive to impose strict Islamic rule on the capital, was also killed on Tuesday along with some hardcore militants who had accumulated a arsenal of weapons and explosives in the mosque-school complex.

Haideri called on young people to protest, but he urged them not to carry guns, saying that would simply play into the hands of the government and its ally, the United States.

"We appeal to the youth, they have got to protest against this but don't carry arms. The United States and Musharraf want that to malign Muslims and Islam," he said.

Banners were strung up on the wall of the mosque where Haideri spoke reading: "Musharraf killer" and "Musharraf is responsible for killing innocent children at Lal Masjid."

The army said of the 75 people killed in the assault, 19 were burned beyond recognition and could have been men, women or children.

"SYMPATHY"

Haideri said the casualty toll was higher and he accused authorities of covering up the true figures.

"There are so many, they are hiding the numbers," he said.

He also said the assault had generated sympathy for the Lal Masjid clerics, even from those who had previously opposed them.

"This incident has turned that opposition into sympathy and support," he said.

The Red Mosque radicals had turned their compound into a virtual fortress during a series of confrontations with the authorities over the last six months.

It took the commandos more than 24 hours to eliminate the final pocket of resistance.

The storming of the mosque has intensified anti-government feelings in northwest Pakistan, particularly in tribal regions on the Afghan border.

Nearly 30 people were killed in bomb attacks targeting security forces in just over a week, three Chinese were shot on Sunday, and protesters ransacked offices and supplies of Western aid agencies working in a mountain town and villages.

Four of the bomb blasts have been suicide attacks, including two on Thursday, that killed seven people, three of them police in North West Frontier Province.

There were no reports of violence on Friday.