Pakistan’s Red Mosque reopened yesterday three months after commandos stormed its compound and killed at least 100 people in a stand-off with Islamist militants in the heart of the national capital.

Several hundred former students and sympathisers gathered for prayers at the mosque, now repaired and repainted white, after the Supreme Court ordered the Government to reopen it on Tuesday.

Security was tight: an earlier attempt to reopen the mosque on July 27 sparked violent clashes between students and police and a suicide bombing that killed 14 people near the compound.

There were no such problems yesterday when police removed barbed wire and sandbagged security posts from around the mosque and the ruined site of an attached religious school. The atmosphere was still tense as loudspeakers played a recorded speech from Abdul Aziz Ghazi, one of the two brothers who led the mosque’s Taleban-style movement that clashed with government forces in July.

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“Our movement for enforcement of Sharia has been stained with our blood and it must continue,” said Mr Aziz, who was captured in July while trying to flee the compound dressed in a woman’s burka. “The problems of this country can only be overcome with Islamic law . . . We are ready for sacrifice!”

President Musharraf, facing a presidential election on Saturday, responded with a warning that authorities would clamp down again if militants tried to retake control of the mosque.

“There should be good things done there, there should be prayers there,” he said on Geo television. “No one will be allowed to take it over.”

The Red Mosque crisis began after its students launched a campaign to enforce Sharia law and sent out vigilante groups to cleanse Islamabad of “unIslamic vices” such as music and massage.

Security forces besieged the compound for a week before storming it on July 10, killing many of the thousands of gun-toting militants and students inside. The Government says that about 100 people were killed but witnesses say that the death toll was more like 1,500 to 2,000. Among them was Mr Aziz’s brother, Abdul Rashid Ghazi.

Al-Qaeda and the Taleban have responded with a wave of suicide bombings and Osama bin Laden pledged in an audio message last month to punish Mr Musharraf for the cleric’s death. His widow and children attended the reopening yesterday, sitting in chairs on a patch of rubble surrounded by barbed wire and former students with tags saying “Security” on their chests.

“Our children and husbands were killed in front of us,” said Ume-Hassan, Mr Aziz’s wife. “You cannot understand our feelings. We have no words, but we are weeping inside.” She thanked the Supreme Court for supporting a petition from her and others to allow the Red Mosque to reopen.

She also called on the Government to release her husband, drop all charges against him and allow him to resume leadership of the mosque.

Amir Siddiq, a nephew of the Ghazi brothers who has been made a deputy cleric at the mosque, said that the religious school would be rebuilt. But he and other teachers insisted that they would continue their struggle in a peaceful manner.

“We’re not fighting the Government, we are fighting for Islamic laws because Pakistan is an Islamic country,” he said.

A former student at the mosque, who refused to give his name, said: “On the day of judgment, the government will be responsible for its actions in front of Allah.”

Stand-off that ended in bloodshed

— The Government says 100 people were killed in the military operation at the mosque on July 10. Other estimates put the toll at up to 1,000.

— Nine soldiers were confirmed dead and 29 wounded during the operation.

— Twenty-seven women and children escaped the mosque after being held there for two days.

— Five hundred people from the North West Frontier Province, where most of the Red Mosque seminary students came from, protested, chanting “Death to Musharraf” after the government siege.

— A suicide bomber killed 13 Pakistani police officers and injured 50 more close to the mosque, hours after the intended reopening on July 27.

Source: Times archives

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