Red Mosque runs red

On Tuesday, this gory drama being played out between the security forces and radical Red Mosque clerics and students right in the heart of the beautiful capital reached a climax. After the failure of late night negotiations, the Pakistani Army, using its full might, including Apache helicopters, tanks, explosives, and machine guns, stormed the mosque and its affiliated seminaries, Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Faridia.

Amid the sounds of earsplitting explosions, the commandos attacked from three directions and cleared the compound of the sprawling 42-year-old mosque. But militants holed up in the complex and strategically positioned in the mosque’s high minarets presented stiff resistance.

The hardline fighters of Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the chief cleric who was killed Tuesday afternoon, caused the multiple casualties to the military. Security forces retaliated with heavy tank shelling and discriminate firing from military helicopters. According to GEO TV, over 150 people were killed and numerous others injured in the bloody confrontation. The beautiful Red Mosque, which used to shine like a ruby in the center of the city, was reduced to a smoldering skeleton, reminiscent of scenes in a war-torn country.

Islamabad, normally so calm and serene, reverberated with the sounds of explosions, bombs, and gunfire the whole day, making life hell for its 1.5 million residents.

Children from 4 to 10 years of age and female seminary students caught up in the tragedy were taken hostage by the militants, who prevented them from surrendering. Members of banned sectarian terrorist groups and even a few foreigners, some of whom may have been connected to Al-Qaeda, also succeeded in infiltrating the Red Mosque.

The relatives of male and female students, mostly extremely poor villagers from remote parts of North West Frontier Province, who could not afford regular government schooling for them, were gathered around the mosque to learn the fate of their loved ones. With every new explosion and volley of gunfire, their hearts sank deeper and they began losing hope that they would ever see them alive again. A father whose son was killed in the crossfire cursed the situation on national television.

The crisis that was simmering for six months slipped out of control on July 3 when students led by unruly Red Mosque mullahs set the adjoining Religious Ministry building on fire, damaging the property badly and burning all the official records and numerous costly vehicles to ashes. The sky-high flames of the glittering fire and the plumes of thick dark smoke engulfed the entire G-6 sector.

Later, students, strengthened by fresh reinforcements from the mosque’s affiliated seminary Jamia Faridia, went on a rampage in the city. Armed with Kalashnikovs, pistols, iron rods, hockey sticks, and clubs and fired up by the rhetoric of their fanatical leaders, they decided to clean up Islamabad once and for all and to establish a pure Islamic system of government. Open war was declared between the so-called forces of Islam and the forces of infidelity. In this case, the poor, smartly dressed blue-clad metropolitan policemen were the first target of their puritan anger.

Students have been carrying out their ‘cleansing operations’ in the city for six months or so.

They started by raiding private homes that they alleged were being used as brothels and kidnapping the residents. Later they attacked a Chinese massage parlor, which incensed the government.

Who is to blame for this tragedy? At the end of the day, it is clear that the militants occupying the mosque were too belligerent to negotiate sensibly in order to save innocent lives, but the Pakistani government also did not give enough time for negotiations and acted too suddenly.    

Islamabad, known for its wide roads and neat and clean residential sectors, which are punctuated with thick forested areas and green hills, was turned into a virtual war zone.

Sadly, that war is still not over, even as the Red Mosque complex runs red with blood.

GJ/HG

END

MNA