Human shield fear grows over besieged Pakistan mosque

[Jolie Rouge]

COWARDS !

Human shield fear grows over besieged Pakistan mosque
By Kamran Haider
Thu Jul 5, 4:29 AM ET

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Small groups of radical students trickled out from Islamabad's besieged Red Mosque on Thursday, despite warning blasts overnight, raising fears that hardcore militants were keeping some children as human shields.

The captured leader of the mosque's Taliban-style student movement, in an interview broadcast on state television, said 850 students remained inside, including 600 women and girls, but only 14 men were armed with Kalashnikovs.

Abdul Aziz, clad in a woman's all-enveloping garment like the one he was caught wearing the previous evening, began the interview by dramatically lifting the black veil to reveal a face dominated by a bushy grey beard.

Smiling through much of the interview Aziz said he had wanted to leave the mosque, and had urged others to do the same, but some women teachers had persuaded girls to stay behind. "They are not being used as human shields, we only gave them passion for jihad (holy war)," Aziz said.

But he said it was time for all the students to leave. "For students to stay put at the mosque will only be damaging ... they should either leave, if they can, or surrender."

One 12-year-old girl, Maria Habib, who was escorted from the mosque by her uncle on Thursday, said there were between 35 and 40 students of her age still inside. A burqa-clad young woman who left on Thursday told Reuters Television she had seen four bodies in the mosque including those of two girls.

Before dawn, security forces fired a series of "warning blasts," ratcheting up pressure on the hold-outs to surrender. The blasts were followed by a loudspeaker announcement calling on students inside Lal Masjid to give up, a witness said.

Some gunfire also erupted but both the blasts and gunfire stopped after about 20 minutes.

DEADLINE PASSES

By the time a new deadline for surrender passed shortly after noon, only around 66 students, half of them girls, had left the sprawling, fortified compound housing the mosque and a madrasa, compared with Wednesday's mass exodus of 1,200 students.

A helicopter gunship overflew the compound, firing in what appeared to be the same sort of intimidation tactic used after earlier deadlines had elapsed. "All those who are remaining in the mosque are ready to die," said Mehbood Wali, 25, one of the male students to leave the mosque on Thursday.

Hospital doctors said there had been casualties during shooting overnight, raising prospects that the death toll would rise from an official tally of 16 since clashes began on Tuesday.

An intelligence official said one student had been shot dead. "One student is confirmed killed during the shooting early this morning. There are no reports of wounded," he said.

The Lal Masjid movement is part of a phenomenon known as "Talibanization" -- the spread of militant influence from remote tribal regions on the Afghan border into central areas.

Liberal politicians have for months pressed President Pervez Musharraf, who faces elections later this year, to crack down on the cleric brothers in charge of the mosque and their movement.

The students carried out a series of provocative acts over the past six months, demanding the enforcement of strict Islamic law, while running a vigilante anti-vice campaign. Abdul Aziz had threatened suicide attacks if force was used against his movement.

TALKS SOUGHT

His brother, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who remained inside the mosque, told Reuters by telephone on Thursday that he would seek talks to stave off more bloodshed.

Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, speaking on Pakistan Television, said the time for dialogue was over. "They have just one option, and that is to surrender," he said.

Should an assault be launched, a security official told Reuters, military planners knew the layout, where materials were stored, and the fighting strength of the mosque's defenders.

Hundreds of police and soldiers, backed by armored personnel carriers and with orders to shoot armed resisters on sight, have sealed off the mosque and imposed an indefinite curfew in the neighborhood around it.

The mosque has a long history of support for militancy but the latest trouble began in January when students, who range from teenagers to people in their 30s, occupied a library to protest against the destruction of mosques illegally built on state land.

They later kidnapped women, including some from China, who they said were involved in prostitution. They also abducted police and intimidated shops selling "obscene" Western films.

Two bomb attacks on security forces on Wednesday in another part of the country killed 12 people and raised fears the mosque's militant allies were hitting back.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070705/wl_nm/pakistan_mosque_dc;_ylt=ApRz_fkSksobUzB2IG.SyuEUew gF


Abdul Aziz, clad in a woman's all-enveloping garment like the one he was caught wearing the previous evening, began the interview by dramatically lifting the black veil to reveal a face dominated by a bushy grey beard.

Abdul Aziz had threatened suicide attacks if force was used against his movement.



COWARD !

[Jolie Rouge]

Mosque leader foresees end of siege
By MUNIR AHMAD, Associated Press Writer
30 minutes ago

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - [b][i]A radical cleric arrested while fleeing his government-besieged mosque in a woman's burqa and high heels said Thursday that the nearly 1,000 followers still inside should flee or surrender.

The comments by Maulana Abdul Aziz raised hopes that the standoff could end without further bloodshed, but his brother remained inside the mosque with followers and said there was no reason to surrender.

Gunfire erupted repeatedly around the Red Mosque, or Lal Masjid, as four helicopters hovered overhead. Journalists were barred from entering the area.

At least 16 people, including eight militants, have been killed and scores injured in the standoff between Pakistan's U.S.-backed government and Aziz, who has challenged President Gen. Pervez Musharraf with a drive to impose Taliban-style Islamic law in the city.

The violence in the heart of the capital has added to a sense of crisis in Pakistan, where Musharraf faces emboldened militants near the Afghan border and a pro-democracy movement triggered by his botched attempt to fire the country's chief justice.

The government, eager to avoid a bloodbath that would damage Musharraf's embattled administration, said it would not storm the mosque so long as women and children remained inside.

However, several explosions rocked the area during a period of intense gunfire before dusk Thursday, sending a plume of black smoke into the sky. Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said troops were trying to blast holes in the walls of the fortress-like compound.

But a leader inside the mosque accused troops of firing several mortar rounds that had killed 27 female students. "A large section of the mosque is damaged and fires have broken out in the Jamia Hafsa (seminary)," Abdul Qayyum told The Associated Press by telephone. "It's total chaos here. There is smoke everywhere and a fire in the room where we were keeping dead bodies" from earlier skirmishes.

Sherpao insisted no mortars were fired and dismissed the claims of casualties.

Earlier, an Interior Ministry official said that Aziz's brother, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, remained inside the mosque with an estimated 30 die-hard supporters. Intelligence officials said there could be as many as 100.

The official, Javed Iqbal Cheema, said Ghazi was using women and children as "human shields," something which Ghazi denied in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "Why should we surrender? We are not criminals. How can we force those out who don't want to leave?" Ghazi, the mosque's deputy leader, said by telephone.

Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim said some of the more than 1,100 supporters who had fled the mosque and an adjoining girls' madrassa told them that Ghazi had retreated to a cellar along with 20 female "hostages" and that the holdouts had "large quantities of automatic weapons."

Azim said there would be no more negotiations with Ghazi. "Enough time has already been wasted. It has to be total, unconditional surrender," he said.

Aziz was nabbed Wednesday evening after a female police officer checking women fleeing the mosque tried to search his body, which was concealed by a full-length black burqa. Azim, the deputy information minister, said the cleric had also been wearing high-heeled shoes.

In an interview with state-run Pakistan Television after his arrest, the gray-bearded Aziz, still dressed in a burqa, appeared calm as he said his mosque has "a relationship of love and affection with all jihadist organizations" but no actual links with them.

"We have no militants, we only had students. If somebody came from outside, I have no information on that," said Aziz, denying responsibility for calls Tuesday over the mosque's loudspeakers for suicide attacks.

"If they can get out quietly they should go, or they can surrender if they want to," Aziz said, referring to those remaining inside the compound. "I saw after coming out that the siege is very intense. ... Our companions will not be able to stay for long."

Security forces were sent to the mosque after the kidnapping of six Chinese women alleged to be prostitutes, a brief abduction that drew a protest from Beijing and proved to be the last straw in a string of provocations by the mosque stretching back six months.

Militant students streamed out of the mosque to confront the government forces, leading to a daylong battle on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the Pakistani army surrounded the mosque, determined to end the actions by the clerics and students. Officials said over 1,100 militants had given up and more emerged early Thursday as police using loudspeakers urged the hold-outs to surrender.

Aziz and Ghazi are named in more than 20 police cases, including involvement in terrorism and fleeing justice, said police official Akhtar Nawaz. But the two, who are brothers, have not yet been charged. "They have no options but to surrender," Cheema said. "The government is not into dialogue with these clerics."

All women and children will be granted amnesty, but males involved in killings and other crimes as well as top mosque leaders will face legal action, said Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070705/ap_on_re_as/pakistan_radical_mosque;_ylt=AkLZTm9kJGZr9zCl6Sd69 fGs0NUE



The government ... said it would not storm the mosque so long as women and children remained inside.


But a leader inside the mosque accused troops of firing several mortar rounds that had killed 27 female students. "A large section of the mosque is damaged and fires have broken out in the Jamia Hafsa (seminary)," Abdul Qayyum told The Associated Press by telephone. "It's total chaos here. There is smoke everywhere and a fire in the room where we were keeping dead bodies" from earlier skirmishes.


How convient that the fire is in the room where they are keeping the bodies ... that will make it difficult to determine how they died. Long range fire from the Gov. troops or close range fire if they tried to escape or surrender.

[Jolie Rouge]

Mosque raid boosts Musharraf image
By Aamer Ahmed Khan
BBC Urdu Service, Islamabad

Musharraf is at a make-or-break phase in his eighth year in power
Barely two weeks ago, Pakistan's military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, was battling for his political survival.

The war drums being beaten by the opposition at home were reaching a crescendo. His battle with the country's chief justice had taken a serious toll on his image as a military man who loathes the pettiness of everyday politics. More importantly, perhaps, his Western allies seemed to be getting increasingly impatient with his seeming inability to deal decisively with Islamist extremists.

All this seems to have changed dramatically over the last three days, after Gen Musharraf gave his administration the green light for dismantling a radical seminary located in the heart of capital, Islamabad.

Major embarrassment

Jamia Hafsa - a seminary affiliated with one of the city's oldest mosques, known as the Red Mosque - had been running circles around the Islamabad administration since the beginning of this year.

Demanding strict enforcement of Sharia (Islamic law), Red Mosque clerics had let loose moral squads on the capital to "prevent vices and promote virtue" - a concept first institutionalised by the Taleban in Afghanistan.

These moral squads, consisting of armed male and female students, were going around the city threatening music shop owners, and kidnapping women over allegations of operating brothels.

But every time they took the law into their own hands, the government had opted for negotiations, arguing that any use of force was likely to lead to bloodshed. Emboldened by the government's perceived pussy-footing, Red Mosque clerics kept raising their public profile until they became a major embarrassment for the government.

However, President Musharraf kept advocating restraint on the basis of intelligence reports which warned of the presence of a large number of suicide bombers inside the mosque and its affiliated seminary.

Concern in the West

The president repeatedly said if the government tried to use force, the clerics would unleash suicide bombers who could kill dozens.

Musharraf's opponents accuse him of being soft on Islamist radicals
"The same people including the media who are currently demanding that the government take action will then turn around and start accusing the government of killing its own people," he said at one of his public appearances earlier this year. "I will order action if the media promises it will not show dead bodies," he said on another occasion.

Initially, many agreed with the president's reasoning, but the argument started to lose weight as the Red Mosque clerics became bolder. "The turning point clearly was the abduction of the Chinese massage parlour girls," says a senior diplomat in Islamabad.

"We know that the Chinese sent a very strong message that they could take losses in Balochistan or the tribal belt but were not prepared to see their citizens abducted and tortured bang in the heart of the capital."

Meanwhile, President Musharraf's opponents were having a field day. The Red Mosque provided great support for their allegation against the president that he wasn't sincere in battling extremism in Pakistan.

Increased attacks in Afghanistan by Pakistan-based Taleban in the first six months of the year had also started to cause concern in Western capitals.

The influential British and American media had started to revisit skeletons that President Musharraf had worked so hard to bury.

Vital role

Throughout its history, Pakistan has been known to pursue various strands of its foreign policy agenda through the use of private militias. Thousands of Pakistan-based Islamist militants have fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Pakistan's proxy war with India over the disputed territory of Kashmir was fought almost exclusively through militant Islamist organisations.

This is a big reason why President Musharraf's opponents have consistently accused him of being soft on Islamist radicals because they have historically worked closely with the army and are generally regarded as vital parts of the country's foreign policy agenda.

More recently, secular opposition parties in Pakistan have accused President Musharraf of stoking Islamist radicalism in order to keep the secular groups in check. The Red Mosque situation had become the primary fuel with which the opposition was hoping to ignite anti-Musharraf sentiments both at home and abroad.

President Musharraf must have been aware of the ire the Red Mosque was stoking up against him when he chose to move. Senior officials in the government say he feared serious bloodshed but was prepared to risk it.

Make or break

Often described as one of the most embattled rulers in the country's history, President Musharraf was clearly desperate for a success that could work for him both at home and abroad. And as the Red Mosque brigade started to crumble against a determined siege by the security forces, President Musharraf must have taken several deep breaths laden with the scent of political success.

Senior officials say he is now planning to address the nation soon after the Red Mosque saga comes to a close. It doesn't take much to guess what he will say.

As the nation inches closer to elections later in the year and a decision from General Musharraf on his dual role as president and army chief, he will be focusing all his energies on getting just one message across: He is still the West's best bet against radical Islam who can move decisively as and when needed.

Whatever the level of truth or reality in this assertion, it is a political reality he is desperate to create as he heads for a make-or-break phase in his eighth year in power.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6274018.stm


Remember, according to some sources, this is the guy Abdul Aziz who’s the new spiritual leader of the Taliban. Ah well. When the going gets tough, the tough get going out the door, in women’s clothing:

Mosque leader in burqa escape bid
Police spotted the cleric's unusual demeanour amid a group of girls

The leader of a radical mosque besieged by Pakistani security forces in Islamabad has been caught trying to escape wearing a woman's burqa.
Security forces seized Maulana Abdul Aziz as he tried to leave the Red Mosque amid a crowd of women.

The mosque is surrounded by Pakistani troops after gun battles with armed students killed 16 on Tuesday. They have been told to give themselves up.
Clerics at the mosque are campaigning for Islamic Sharia law to be enforced.

The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad says that there is a feeling that the siege may be entering its end stages as three senior Muslim clerics have entered the mosque to try negotiate with Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the deputy leader of the mosque and brother to Abdul Aziz.

Security forces have also been moving around inside the compound, our correspondent says. Abdul Rashid is reportedly saying that he is willing to surrender if certain demands are met however, the government remains adamant that all armed people inside the mosque should surrender unconditionally.


The deputy commissioner of police in Islamabad, Chaudhry Muhammad Ali, described how Abdul Aziz tried to escape wearing the all-enveloping dress worn by Muslim women. "The maulana came out of the mosque with a group of girls wearing a burqa and carrying a handbag. The girls protested when he was stopped. But officers were suspicious and after a search, Maulana Abdul Aziz was identified and arrested," he told the BBC.

Another security official told AFP that the cleric had been picked out because of his "unusual demeanour". "The rest of the girls looked like girls, but he was taller and had a pot belly," the official said.

Abdul Aziz was captured as more than 700 of his followers surrendered to government forces.

Protests

As news of the arrest filtered through, a small group of his supporters gathered outside the cordoned-off area to protest. Female students who were let out were being allowed to go home, while male students were being held and searched.

The authorities have extended the deadline for students to surrender. They say they want to allow as many as possible to leave peacefully, but they also say they are prepared for force, says the BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad.

Security officials estimate that eventually a hard core of several hundred militants will be left, but it is not clear whether the arrest of Abdul Aziz will help to resolve the situation, our correspondent says.

Earlier, troops in armoured personnel carriers surrounded the mosque as helicopter gunships circled overhead and gunfire was heard.

Several thousand people remain inside the Red Mosque (Lal Masjid) complex, and many of them are young students at a girls' school.

In addition to the 16 people killed during Tuesday's violence, more than 140 people were hurt, officials said.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6270626.stm

[Jolie Rouge]

Exit question: Might there be glorious shame-perpetuating video footage of Pakistani forces frogmarching this turd away?

Exit answer: Television footage showed the gray-bearded Aziz being led away from the mosque by security forces. He was still wearing the burqa from the neck down, although he was clutching the outfit’s hood in his hand.


http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070704/photos_wl_afp/300b90515402111e17f1ce731f73e480


http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20070704/capt.ba0a8c9a91c143c1b9706a8eae597467.pakistan_rad ical_mosque_isl122.jpg

A grab of Ajj TV shows, in circle, Abdul Aziz, chief cleric of the Red Mosque, as he is surrounded by security officials after his arrest near The Red Mosque in Islamabad. Pakistani security forces arrested Aziz as he tried to flee while disguised in an all-covering women's burqa on Wednesday, officials said.(AFP/Ajj TV)


http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20070704/capt.3a233593e87e4ecfa475df87d9c139a5.pakistan_rad ical_mosque_isl125.jpg

"After all the things he has said and all the oaths he took from his students that they should embrace martyrdom with him, look at this man, he had to eventually try to run like a woman,"
-- Azeem (Deputy Information Minister) told AFP.

The hardline islamic transvestite wannabe seemed puzzled. The clip is poor quality but well worth it. Schadenfreude!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40DP9Mt0Iqs&eurl=

And these are the guys who call on others to martyr themselves for the cause… while they escape dressed as a woman!

Where’s their faith???

[Jolie Rouge]

Pakistani leader escapes attempt on life
By MUNIR AHMAD, Associated Press Writer
8 minutes ago

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A burst of gunfire went off as President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's plane left a military base on Friday, in what one official described as a failed assassination attempt.

Security forces quickly raided a nearby home with two anti-aircraft guns on the roof, taking the owner in for questioning and searching for a couple who rented the property this week, officials said. "It was an unsuccessful effort by miscreants to target the president's plane," a senior security official told AP. The official, like those who described the raid on the house, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record. "They fled quickly, and our security agencies are still investigating."

The government, however, said it had yet to establish whether it was an attack on Musharraf. "At the moment there does not appear to be any linkeage between the incident and the president's flight," the government said in a statement.

The senior security official said Musharraf was aboard when the plane came under fire, but insisted the aircraft was not within range of the attempt in Rawalpindi, a garrison city south of the capital where Musharraf narrowly escaped two attempts on his life in 2003.

Photographs taken from an overlooking building showed a large gun on a tripod pointed skyward and a machine-gun next to a rusty satellite TV dish and a plastic water tank on the flat roof of the two-story building. Two anti-aircraft guns and a light machine gun were found on the roof and the homeowner was taken in for questioning, three officials told The Associated Press.

Kamal Shah, a senior ministry official, sidestepped a question at a news conference about the lapse of time between Musharraf's takeoff from the base and the firing. "It is still a matter of investigation," Shah said. "We want to know where the bullets went, whether they were directed toward some wall or in the air."

The ministry said shell casings were recovered and only the machine gun was fired.

The Pakistani president has come under increasing criticism for decision to suspend the country's chief justice and his government faces pressure in the capital, where the top-ranking cleric of a radical mosque besieged by government forces rejected calls for an unconditional surrender Friday, saying he and his die-hard followers were ready for martyrdom.

A resident in the neighborhood near the air base, Mohammed Asif, 31, said that he heard two loud bangs about "a minute or less than a minute" apart and then saw a man firing an AK-47 rifle from an off-white Suzuki car passing by his home. "A small plane was flying at that time," Asif, a worker in Rawalpindi's fruit market, told an AP reporter.

According to state-run Pakistan Television, Musharraf flew from the air base Friday and later safely landed in Turbat, a remote southwestern town where he was to inspect efforts to bring relief to hundreds of thousands of people affected by recent catastrophic flooding.

Khan Mohammed, a road construction worker, who was in a nearby street, said he heard someone fire single shots and then a burst from an automatic weapon but he said he did not know where the gunfire originated or its target. "It lasted for about five minutes," Mohammed said.

Mohammed said that he heard the roar of a plane overhead when the firing occurred. Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in its war on terrorism, narrowly escaped two bombings within 11 days which targeted his limousine in December 2003. In the second blast, a suicide attack, 16 people died, mostly police officers. Both attempts occurred in Rawalpindi.

Police later arrested dozens of people in connection with the attacks on the general, and the detainees included low-ranking air force personnel, an army soldier and civilians.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070706/ap_on_re_as/pakistan_musharraf;_ylt=ApjxBZcdHtY.EN98CuUvDDKs0N UE

[Jolie Rouge]

Troops storm Pakistan mosque compound
By ZARAR KHAN, Associated Press Writer
8 minutes ago

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Government troops stormed the compound of Islamabad's Red Mosque before dawn Tuesday, prompting a fierce firefight with militants accused of holding scores of hostages, officials said. At least 40 rebels and three soldiers were killed.

Amid the sounds of rolling explosions, commandos attacked from three directions about 4 a.m. and quickly cleared the ground floor of the mosque, army spokesman Gen. Waheed Arshad said. Some 20 children who rushed toward the advancing troops were brought to safety, he said.

Well-trained militants armed with machine guns, rocket launchers and gasoline bombs put up tough resistance from the basement, Arshad said, adding rebels were also firing from minarets and have booby trapped some areas. "Those who surrender will be arrested, but the others will be treated as combatants and killed," he said.

The assault began minutes after a delegation led by a former prime minister left the area declaring that efforts to negotiate a peaceful end to a week-old seige had failed.

Clashes this month between security forces and supporters of the mosque's hardline clerics prompted the siege. The religious extremists had been trying to impose Taliban-style morality in the capital through a six-month campaign of kidnappings and threats. Prior to Tuesday's assault, at least 24 people had been killed in and around the mosque.

The assault was signaled by blasts and gunfire. About three and a half hours after the assault started, Arshad said 50 to 60 percent of the complex had been "cleared" but resistance continued in "various places."

Some 40 militants had been killed and between 15 to 20 had been wounded. Arshad said three special forces commandos were also killed and 15 wounded.

Rebel leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi told the private Geo TV network that his mother had been wounded by gunshot. There was no immedidate official confirmation of his claim. "The government is using full force. This is naked aggression," he said. "My martyrdom is certain now."

He said that about 30 militants were resisting security forces but were only armed with 14 AK-47 assault rifles.

As the fighting roiled on, emergency workers at an army cordon waiting for access to the compound. Women police officers were on standby to handle any female survivors or casualties.

A senior civilian official said troops had arrested dozens of people inside the compound and that part of the madrassa had caught fire. The official requested anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media.

Tuesday attack followed a botched commando raid on the high-walled mosque compound over the weekend.

On Monday, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf assigned ex-premier Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to try and negotiate a peaceful end to the standoff. But Hussain and a delegation of Islamic clerics returned crestfallen from the mosque before dawn Tuesday after about nine hours of talks with rebel leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi via loudspeakers and cell phones.

"We offered him a lot, but he wasn't ready to come on our terms," Hussain told reporters waiting at the edge of the army cordon.

Several loud explosions boomed over the city just as the vexed looking delegates were getting into their cars and sporadic shooting was also heard.

About two dozen relatives of people trapped inside the complex waited anxiously at the army cordon during the assault.

The government has said wanted terrorists are organizing the defense of the mosque, while Ghazi has accused security forces of killing scores of students.

In his comments on Tuesday, Ghazi said he had offered to show the mediators that they had no heavy weapons, foreign militants or other wanted people inside the mosque.

The siege has given the neighborhood the look of a war zone, with troops manning machine guns behind sandbagged posts and from the top of armored vehicles.

It has also sparked anger in Pakistan's restive northwest frontier. On Monday, 20,000 tribesmen, including hundreds of masked militants wielding assault rifles, held a protest in the frontier region of Bajur.

Many chanted "Death to Musharraf" and "Death to America" in a rally led by Maulana Faqir Mohammed, a cleric wanted by authorities and who is suspected of ties to al-Qaida No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070710/ap_on_re_as/pakistan_radical_mosque;_ylt=AslbuqIxVzeFrWkEXRhFN uis0NUE

[Jolie Rouge]

At least 106 dead at Pakistan mosque
By SADAQAT JAN, Associated Press Writer
6 minutes ago

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - President Pervez Musharraf's government warned Wednesday it would not tolerate militancy at any of Pakistan's thousands of religious schools after the army subdued Islamic extremists holding the Red Mosque. At least 106 people died in the weeklong siege and street battles.

Hours later, Al-Qaida's No. 2 released a videotape calling on Pakistanis to join a holy war against Musharraf's government to avenge the army assault. "Rigged elections will not save you, politics will not save you, and bargaining, bootlicking negotiations with the criminals, and political maneuvers will not save you," a bespectacled and white-clad Ayman al-Zawahri said in the video, which was subtitled in English.

"Musharraf and his hunting dogs have rubbed your honor in the dirt in the service of the Crusaders and the Jews," he said. The video was released by al-Qaida's multimedia branch, as-Sahab. Its authenticity could not immediately be confirmed, but two U.S.-based terrorism monitoring groups also reported it.

Authorities said at least 106 people were killed overall since the violence began July 3 at the Red Mosque complex, which includes two schools — one for girls and one for boys. The dead included 10 soldiers, one police ranger and a number of civilians killed by crossfire in initial street fighting last week.

Among the dead was a pro-Taliban cleric, Abdul Rashid Ghazi. Seventy-three bodies — believed to be those of the mosque's die-hard defenders — were found by Pakistani troops clearing the sprawling mosque complex of mines, booby traps and other weaponry.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said commandos searching the mosque found no corpses of women and children, although seven or eight of the bodies had been burned beyond recognition, apparently by the militants' gasoline bombs. "The major group of women was all together and came out all together," he said, referring to 27 women, a 9-year-old boy and two girls, aged 3 and 5, who emerged from the mosque Tuesday.

The extremists had been using the mosque as a base to send out radicalized students to enforce their version of Islamic morality, including abducting alleged prostitutes and trying to "re-educate" them at the compound.

The elite Special Services Group commandos went in after unsuccessful attempts to get the mosque's militants to surrender to a weeklong siege mounted by the government following deadly street clashes with armed supporters of the mosque on July 3.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz warned the government would act against any other madrassa, or religious school, found to be involved in militancy. "Militancy cannot be promoted, period," he told reporters. "The law will take its course, as the law took its course here."

Musharraf vowed five years ago to regulate Pakistan's thousands of religious schools, but concerns have only grown that some are used as sanctuaries or training sites for militants — including Taliban insurgents fighting in Afghanistan.

Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim conceded it was possible that other madrassas in Pakistan could be harboring weaponry like the Red Mosque, but added that the assault had sent a strong message that the government "meant business."

"We need to be now much more vigilant, but I hope they (extremist madrassas) have got the message that if they are in involved in such activities, they will have to face action," he said.

Students at the mosque's male and female schools ranged in age from as young as 4 to their early 20s. The female school also housed some widows and children left homeless by the 2005 earthquake that killed more than 80,000 people in northern Pakistan.

Relatives of students who had been in the mosque waited behind army barricades and inquired at morgues or a sports stadium where authorities set up an information center for those seeking missing loved ones.

"Oh God! help me find my son!" said Mohammed Ajmal, 39, who lost contact with 14-year-old Mohammed Amjad four days ago. "I went to all hospitals. I contacted police and the government, but I have no information about my son," he said, raising his arms to the sky.

Ajmal, who sent Amjad from their remote hometown in northern Pakistan a year ago to study the Quran at a religious school associated with the Red Mosque, was among about 100 parents searching for their loved ones at the sports stadium.

The government says 1,300 people, including men, women and children, escaped or otherwise left the compound after the army siege began July 3. It followed six months of mounting tension amid a vigilante campaign by the mosque's leaders to kidnap policemen and alleged prostitutes in a bid to impose Taliban-style morality on the capital.

Lying in his hospital bed at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Bakhat Fazil recounted how he was hit by bullets in the shoulder and leg when he rushed to the mosque to rescue his three daughters trapped inside.

He later learned his daughters, all under age 10, had been freed and were safe.

Fazil said he sent his daughters to study, not to become militants, and that they were prevented from leaving the seminary by extremists.

"I know many parents begged for the release of their children," said the 38-year-old taxi driver. "I curse those who didn't free innocent women and children, and who held them against their will."

The casualties at the Red Mosque could further turn public opinion against Musharraf, who already faces a backlash for his bungled attempts to fire the country's chief justice. But it also pushed the controversy over the judge out of a harsh media spotlight and prompted a fresh show of support from Washington.

About 500 people chanting "Death to Musharraf!" rallied for an hour Wednesday in the northwest frontier city of Peshawar.

"This (mosque attack) is part of our government's action against religious elements to please America," said Shabbir Khan, a lawmaker from an opposition Islamic party, at the demonstration.

About 15 other Islamic opposition lawmakers gathered in front of the Supreme Court in Islamabad, blaming Musharraf for Pakistan's troubles, including the mosque attack, and calling for his resignation.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070711/ap_on_re_as/pakistan_radical_mosque;_ylt=As2kzEKVUjkWVx7BqwnlC Lys0NUE

[Jolie Rouge]

Chronology of Pakistan mosque siege
Tue Jul 10, 12:43 PM ET

A chronology leading up to Tuesday's bloody raid of the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in the Pakistani capital:

• January 2007: Scores of female seminary students armed with canes occupy a children's library in Islamabad, protesting government plans to demolish mosques and madrassas — religious schools — built without official permission.

• March 27: In the start of a Taliban-style anti-vice campaign, female students abduct three women they accuse of running a brothel, then later seize two policemen. They are released after reportedly repenting.

• April 6: The mosque sets up an Islamic Shariah court. The mosque's senior cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, vows to launch thousands of suicide attacks if the government tries to close him down.

• April 9: The Shariah court hands down a religious edict, or fatwa, against Pakistan Tourism Minister Nilofar Bakhtiar, accusing her of committing a sin, after she is shown in newspaper photographs embracing a parachuting instructor following a charity jump in France.

• April 10: The government blocks the mosque's Web site and radio station.

• May 19: Students associated with the mosque kidnap four policemen after the arrest of a dozen mosque supporters. The kidnap of another two policemen follows. All are eventually freed.

• June 23: Dozens of students kidnap nine people, including six Chinese women and a Chinese man, from an acupuncture clinic, claiming it is a brothel. All are freed following protests from Beijing, in what proves to be the last straw in the six-month confrontation.

• July 3: Escalating tensions erupt into street battles around the mosque between security forces and militants. At least nine people die and some 150 are wounded.

• July 4: Security forces lay siege to the mosque, later demanding an unconditional surrender and the release of alleged hostages held inside. Aziz is arrested sneaking out of the mosque dressed in a burqa and high-heels. His brother Abdul Rashid Ghazi takes over as mosque chief.

• July 7: President Gen. Pervez Musharraf threatens the militants inside the mosque with death if they do not lay down their arms.

• July 10: After negotiations fail, security forces storm the mosque. Ghazi is killed, along with about 50 militants and eight soldiers.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070710/ap_on_re_as/pakistan_radical_mosque_chronology_2


Al-Qaida: Wage holy war against Pakistan
9 minutes ago

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida's No. 2 issued a new videotape on Wednesday calling for Pakistanis to join the jihad, or holy war, in revenge for the attack by Pakistan's army on a radical mosque.

Ayman al-Zawahri's 4-minute, 24-second address was entitled "The Aggression against Lal Masjid" and entirely focused on the recent clashes between Islamic students and Pakistan's army at the mosque.

The video was released by al-Qaida's multimedia branch, as-Sahab. Its authenticity could not immediately be confirmed, but two U.S.-based terrorism monitoring groups also reported it. "Muslims of Pakistan: your salvation is only through Jihad," al-Zawahri said in the video, which was subtitled in English.

"Rigged elections will not save you, politics will not save you, and bargaining, bootlicking, negotiations with the criminals, and political maneuvers will not save you," a bespectacled and white-clad al-Zawahri said.

"Musharraf and his hunting dogs have rubbed your honor in the dirt in the service of the Crusaders and the Jews," he said, referring to Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, who has come under strong internal criticism for his handling of the clashes at the mosque.

Al-Qaida's new video came as Pakistani commandos cleared the warren-like Red Mosque complex of its last die-hard defenders Wednesday and the army said it counted the bodies of 73 suspected militants.

The commandos went in after unsuccessful attempts to get the mosque's militants to surrender to a weeklong siege mounted by the government following deadly street clashes in Islamabad with armed supporters of the mosque on July 3.

The extremists had been using the mosque as a base to send out radicalized students to enforce their version of Islamic morality, including abducting alleged prostitutes and trying to "re-educate" them at the compound.

Some 106 people have been killed overall since the violence began. They include 10 soldiers, one police ranger and several civilians who died in the crossfire. The dead included the mosque's pro-Taliban cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi.

Al-Zawahri described the cleric's death as a "dirty, despicable crime committed by Pakistani military intelligence" at the orders of Musharraf.

"This crime can only be washed away by repentance or blood," said Osama bin Laden's deputy, who is believed to be hiding in the hinterland on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border along with al-Qaida's chief.

It was the second message by al-Zawahri this week, and his 10th this year, said Ben Venzke of the IntelCenter, a U.S.-based intelligence group that monitors terrorism messages.

Venzke said al-Qaida's media wing, as-Sahab, was now releasing more than two messages a week on average. "They just keep getting faster," he said on the telephone.

"Al-Qaida has apparently made the decision that it's important for them to respond to current events within a short news cycle," he said. Venzke pointed out that al-Zawahri was reacting to events at the Red Mosque in Pakistan that were barely a week old.

As-Sahab issued a total of 58 messages for all of 2006. But Wednesday's release was its 62nd so far for 2007, IntelCenter said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070711/ap_on_re_mi_ea/pakistan_mosque_al_qaida;_ylt=ArDwqH.BRW_w4R4yHUL5 tQ6s0NUE

[Jolie Rouge]

Mosque raid boosts Musharraf image

Remember, according to some sources, this is the guy Abdul Aziz who’s the new spiritual leader of the Taliban. Ah well. When the going gets tough, the tough get going out the door, in women’s clothing:

Mosque leader in burqa escape bid
Police spotted the cleric's unusual demeanour amid a group of girls

The leader of a radical mosque besieged by Pakistani security forces in Islamabad has been caught trying to escape wearing a woman's burqa.
Security forces seized Maulana Abdul Aziz as he tried to leave the Red Mosque amid a crowd of women.

The mosque is surrounded by Pakistani troops after gun battles with armed students killed 16 on Tuesday. They have been told to give themselves up.
Clerics at the mosque are campaigning for Islamic Sharia law to be enforced.

The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad says that there is a feeling that the siege may be entering its end stages as three senior Muslim clerics have entered the mosque to try negotiate with Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the deputy leader of the mosque and brother to Abdul Aziz.

Security forces have also been moving around inside the compound, our correspondent says. Abdul Rashid is reportedly saying that he is willing to surrender if certain demands are met however, the government remains adamant that all armed people inside the mosque should surrender unconditionally.


The deputy commissioner of police in Islamabad, Chaudhry Muhammad Ali, described how Abdul Aziz tried to escape wearing the all-enveloping dress worn by Muslim women. "The maulana came out of the mosque with a group of girls wearing a burqa and carrying a handbag. The girls protested when he was stopped. But officers were suspicious and after a search, Maulana Abdul Aziz was identified and arrested," he told the BBC.

Another security official told AFP that the cleric had been picked out because of his "unusual demeanour". "The rest of the girls looked like girls, but he was taller and had a pot belly," the official said.

Abdul Aziz was captured as more than 700 of his followers surrendered to government forces.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6270626.stm


Another cross-dressing jihadist caught
November 6, 2007 10:45 AM [/i]

Last summer, a Taliban leader was caught trying to escape the siege at the Red Mosque in Pakistan disguised in a burka. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6270626.stm

Last spring, Afghan soldiers stopped another fleeing Taliban leader, Mullah Mamood, at a checkpoint wearing a burqa. http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/03/report_taliban_.html

One of the 7/7 bombers in London was dressed in a burka and caught on security cameras, according to this British TV report. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-3OSe7w-RY

A Somalian fugitive wanted for the murder of a policewoman escaped from Britain by disguising himself as a veiled Muslim woman. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/incomingFeeds/article758617.ece http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article666149.ece

Add a new incident to the list: According to a press release yesterday, our troops in Iraq nabbed another cross-dressing jihadist during an operation disrupting al Qaeda forces: http://www.centcom.mil/sites/uscentcom2/Lists/CurrentPressReleases/DispForm.aspx?


Coalition Forces killed eight terrorists and detained 10 suspects Tuesday during operations to disrupt al-Qaeda and foreign terrorist networks in central and northern Iraq.

Coalition forces targeted a suspected terrorist involved in planning improvised explosive device attacks and facilitating foreign terrorists during operations in Tuz, south of Kirkuk.

Reports indicate he was one of the chief planners for the suicide car bombing attacks July 16, killing more than 70 Iraqi people and injuring more than 130 in Kirkuk.

Upon arriving to the target area, the ground force saw three individuals evading Coalition forces and maneuvering south.

Coalition forces pursued the suspects into a tunnel system near a river. A fourth armed man engaged the ground force from a defensive position. Responding in self-defense, the ground force engaged and killed the terrorist with sniper fire. Coalition forces called for supporting aircraft to engage the enemy in the tunnels, killing two terrorists. Later, the assault force safely destroyed the tunnel system with an air strike to prevent further use by terrorists.

As the ground force secured the target area, they called for the occupants of a building to come out. A suspected terrorist, who came out with an unknown object above his head, was repeatedly told to drop the object. The individual did not comply and displayed hostile intent toward Coalition forces.

Responding in self defense, the ground force engaged with sniper fire, killing the terrorist. Another man dressed in women’s clothing, was apparently attempting to elude Coalition forces, he and another suspect were detained on site.

[Jolie Rouge]

Crackdown in Pakistan leaves U.S. in quandary
Mon Nov 5, 12:22 AM ET

Iraq and Iran are precarious places, but Pakistan could well be themost dangerous country on Earth. It has nuclear weapons. Its topnuclear scientist has sold nuclear technology to rogue nations. And itharbors an expanding extremist Islamic movement in its wild frontierregion, where Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding.

All of this complicates the U.S. response to the weekend crackdownby Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president and U.S. ally in the waron terror. Musharraf, blaming the extremist threat and desperatelyclinging to power, suspended the constitution, sent troops into thestreets and arrested hundreds of opponents and democracy advocates.


The impulsive reaction to Musharraf's dictatorial actions might seem straightforward: End the $10 billion-plus in U.S. aid, impose sanctions and insist that scheduled elections go ahead. But for all the danger and foolishness of his moves, it is not that simple.


Whatever the United States does — or doesn't do — risks adding a spark to a tinderbox country where people are deeply anti-American and where the Islamic extremists, though still a small minority, are gaining ground. Musharraf knows this. It enabled him to defy pleas from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice not to impose martial law.


So, what to do, particularly given the limited leverage the United States possesses?


The American goal, more easily described than achieved, must be to nurture democracy in Pakistan while protecting against the nightmare scenario of a nuclear-armed al-Qaeda. For now, the best of the unappealing options is to pressure Musharraf to roll back his crackdown, while working behind the scenes to keep Pakistan out of radical hands if he is driven from office. Pakistan has enough moderates and democrats in its military and civilian society to work with.


Musharraf has promised much since he signed up as a U.S. ally after 9/11: A return to democracy and a commitment to do what it takes to defeat the extremists who use Iraq as a staging ground for worldwide terrorism. But most dictators make ritual democracy promises — then opt for self-preservation above all else.


Musharraf is no different. He was about to give up his uniform and continue as civilian president. But when it looked like the Pakistani Supreme Court might invalidate his recent maneuver to stay in power, he moved to pre-empt the ruling.


Stability might seem of paramount importance, but recent Pakistani history offers a cautionary tale. U.S. support for military dictator Zia ul-Haq helped nurture Islamic extremism in the 1980s. Then, as now, U.S. interests are best served by solid institutions, not seductive strongmen.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20071105/cm_usatoday/crackdowninpakistanleavesusinquandary;_ylt=AjQ728N EGrLZT9e8BSIGlYas0NUE