Defiant Pakistan cleric says mosque has guns

A fundamentalist mosque behind a morality campaign in the Pakistani capital has guns on the premises and will defend itself if the government attempts a crackdown, a top cleric said yesterday.The Lal Masjid or Red Mosque in Islamabad has caused the government headaches with its Taliban-style vice patrols and by issuing a “fatwa” against a female minister for being pictured hugging a paragliding instructor.
“If it comes to a do-and-die situation we will use our right to self defence,” Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the mosque’s deputy leader, said by telephone.“Whatever arms we have are with licences obtained in the past through normal official procedures,” he said when asked to comment on what appeared to be assault rifles carried by young devotees standing guard on the mosque’s walls.The bearded mullah refused to respond to comments by intelligence sources that the students of two Islamic schools which are attached to the mosque had stored petrol to make crude firebombs.
On Friday, Abdul Aziz, the chief cleric at the mosque in downtown Islamabad, and Ghazi’s brother threatened to launch “thousands” of suicide attacks if government security forces launched an operation against the compound.He also announced the formation of an Islamic “Shariah” court, which two days later issued the fatwa against Tourism Minister Nilofar Bakhtiar.The government of military ruler President Pervez Musharraf is continuing negotiations with the mosque’s leaders despite public pressure to tackle what has been described as “Talibanisation” in the heart of the capital. Musharraf told a public rally in the eastern city of Sialkot that the mosque’s male and female students were not the real enemy in the battle against extremism, and that the government did not want to fight them.“Newspapers say the government is weak and I am showing signs of weakness or some fear.
It is not a question of any fear,” Musharraf said. “But they are not enemies that we should attack and eliminate.”Casualties in any raid on the mosque would be bad for Musharraf, a proponent of moderate Islam and key US ally in the war on terror, at a time when he faces a political crisis over his removal of Pakistan’s chief justice.
Male and female students from the mosque’s schools have launched morality patrols targeting local music and video shops, as well as briefly kidnapping two policemen and three women including an alleged brothel owner.They have also refused to vacate a government library for children they occupied in January in protest at the demolition of several mosques that authorities said were built on illegally occupied land.
Courtesy: GT

Pakistan military back in tribal zone

Pakistani troops have re-occupied part of the tribal area along the Afghan border they left two years ago as part of a peace deal with local leaders.
Pakistani troops were deployed on Friday into the mountainous Shin Warsak area, just west of Wana, the main town of the semi-autonomous South Waziristan tribal agency, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Wahid Arshad told reporters in Islamabad.
The deployment follows a month of clashes between local tribal militias and more than 1000 Uzbek Jihadis who settled in the region after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.
It was the first time troops had left their barracks in Wana since a peace deal was signed with local tribal leaders in 2005.
Taliban guerrillas fighting U.S., NATO and Afghan troops in Afghanistan are known to use Pakistan's tribal border areas for safe haven.
Courtesy: UPI

Pakistan's ex-PMs Benazir Bhutto & Nawaz Sharif seek US help for fair polls

Former Pakistan prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto have stepped up their overtures to the Bush administration, apparently in the belief that that the US alone can nudge President Pervez Musharraf towards holding free and fair elections.
The political rivals, engaged in forging opposition unity from their exile in Dubai and London, have also toured the US in the last month.
After a recent meeting in London, they had chided the West in general and accused it of 'hypocrisy' for being keen on democracy in neighbouring Afghanistan, but not in Pakistan.
Sharif, whom Musharraf deposed in 1998, told a US House of Representatives team in London last week: '2007 is a defining year for Pakistan. If elections are rigged, the country will plunge into deeper political crisis. The opposition parties are committed to restoring supremacy of constitution, rule of law, and ensuring fair and free elections in the country.'
Sharif lamented the continued US support to Musharraf at the meeting with the delegation of US House of Representatives subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, led by its Chairman John Tierney, at his residence in central London, The Nation reported.
He complained that Musharaf had played the extremists' threat only to perpetuate his rule whereas the people of Pakistan had always supported moderate parties and ideas.
The US delegation, on its way to Pakistan on a three-day visit, expressed strong support for restoration of democracy and holding of fair and free elections in Pakistan.
They said: 'Congress is considering proposals to link Pakistan's economic assistance with progress on fighting terrorism and restoration of democracy. In this connection the delegation will meet with the representatives of the government, political parties, and civil society to formulate its recommendations.'
The American legislators assured Sharif that they would stress upon the Bush administration the need to hold free and fair elections and the participation of the entire political leadership in the process.
The US has also indicated its readiness to let Musharraf seek a second term in the presidency after which he might be confident enough to hold general elections.
Outgoing US envoy to Pakistan Robert C. Crocker told reporters here last week that it was 'for the people of Pakistan' to choose the type of democracy they desire. The US was not prescribing anything.
But the opposition says Musharraf's attempt would be patently illegal and even unconstitutional since the present parliament and provincial legislatures that form the electoral college have already elected him once in 2002.

Missing in Pakistan, found in jehadi ranks: Musharraf

Hitting out at jehadi groups for bringing bad name to Islam, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf today said a number of missing persons, believed to have been abducted by intelligence agencies, actually joined militant outfits like the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad to create trouble in different parts of the world.
In his address to a religious conference here on the occasion of Eid Milad-un Nabi, Musharraf said he has conducted a thorough investigation into the allegations by relatives of missing persons and found that a number of them had joined jehadi groups.
He mainly referred to the campaign conducted by Amana, wife of one Janjua who has gone missing. Musharraf said Amana's husband, who was the son of an officer of Pakistan's special commando forces, went missing in Peshawar after attending the conference of an Islamic propagandaorganisation. Investigations revealed that Janjua had joined the Jaish-e-Mohammad.
Musharraf said his investigations have revealed that of the 45 persons missing, 35 have been traced.
Three of them, captured in Afghanistan, were found at Guantanamo. The remaining 10, including Janjua, have not been traced so far.
Referring to the girls of a madarsa here capturing two police and abducting three women, allegedly brothel runners, Musharraf appealed to the people present to prevail on such students not to indulge in militant acts.
He said young men and women joined jehadi groups and brought bad name to Islam by trying to impose their philosophy on others.
Musharraf said under Islam no one has the right to declare jehad except the government, which was the central authority. Jehad is just not about fighting and dying but it should be launched against illiteracy and poverty.
Courtesy: IE