Storming of Red Mosque likely to lead to further violence
PAKISTAN | Thursday, 12 July 2007 | Views [414]
At 04:00 local time on 10 July 2007, Pakistani special forces launched ‘Operation Silence’, a military incursion into the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, located in the heart of Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad. The operation brought an end to an eight-day stand-off between the Pakistani government and radical students and clergy holed up inside the mosque complex. The fighting, which lasted over 24 hours, saw the security forces meet heavy resistance from militants armed with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and petrol bombs. The seminary complex, which includes a women’s religious school, was booby-trapped with landmines, and militants also took up firing positions in the mosque’s minarets. Current casualty reports suggest that as many as 50 militants were killed, along with the Mosque’s hard-line cleric, Abdul Rashid Ghazi. A further 80 militants surrendered or were captured. Eight soldiers died in the fighting, and another 29 were wounded. There is currently little news on the fate of hundreds of women and children who were reportedly trapped in the complex during the siege, although at least 50 of them are thought to have escaped during the initial phase of the operation.
Tensions between Pakistan’s government and the Red Mosque have been growing for months. The Mosque, long a hotbed of radicalism and militancy and a consistent supporter of Afghanistan’s Taleban and its opposition to Musharraf’s backing for the US-led ‘war on terror’, has systematically begun to challenge the Pakistan government’s authority over the past six months. In January, female students from the Mosque’s seminary occupied a children’s library and refused to move until the government rebuilt some illegally constructed mosques that it had demolished. Shortly after this episode, Red Mosque clerics demanded the strict enforcement of Sharia law throughout Pakistan, and let loose vigilante morality squads on Islamabad in an effort to ‘prevent vices and promote virtue’. These morality squads threatened music and video shop owners, and kidnapped women accused of prostitution, as well as a number of police officers. Events reached crisis point in June, when students from the mosque abducted seven Chinese nationals they accused of running a brothel, and held them at the compound for over 17 hours. The incident apparently provoked Beijing to make clear to Musharraf that, although it could accept losses in Balochistan and the other tribal areas of Pakistan, it was not prepared to see its citizens abducted and tortured in the heart of Islamabad. The rebuke appears to have stung the Pakistani government into action. By 3 July, the Red Mosque compound was surrounded by security forces and surrender demands were issued to the militants within its walls. After eight days of fruitless negotiations and occasional violent skirmishes in which 21 people lost their lives, Musharraf authorised the decisive incursion.
The raid into the Red Mosque has significant implications, both for Musharraf and for Pakistan’s security environment. The president has recently been fighting for his political survival. His decision in March to remove Pakistan’s top judge, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry, sparked the most serious opposition protests since he seized power in a military coup in 1999. However, Musharraf’s handling of the Red Mosque crisis, characterised by a measured forcefulness, appears to have been viewed favourably by many in Pakistan and is expected to give him some much needed political breathing space. This respite, though, will be short-lived. Pakistan’s parliamentary elections are on the horizon and a Supreme Court judgement on Chaudhry’s dismissal is only two weeks away, almost guaranteeing that Musharraf’s troubles will re-emerge.
The military assault on the Red Mosque is also highly likely to provoke militant attacks throughout the country. In October 2006, a Pakistani military operation on a madrassa in the Bajaur tribal area of the country, in which at least 80 militants died, triggered a wave of retaliatory militant action that saw terrorist strikes in the North West Frontier Province, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and Islamabad itself. A similar level of violence can be expected this time around. Extremist elements have vowed to avenge any attack on the Mosque, and there were already signs of Islamist-related violence prior to yesterday’s assault. On 6 July, there were reports of an attempt to shoot down Musharraf’s plane as it took off from Chaklala military airbase in Rawalpindi, and on 8 July three Chinese workers were shot dead and another seriously wounded in the north-western city of Peshawar in a militant attack apparently motivated by the bloody siege in the capital.
The operation against the Red Mosque is a much needed attempt to counter the Islamist militancy currently seeping into Pakistan’s cities from the lawless tribal belt along the Afghan border. The assault looks likely to buy Musharraf some political time, although the Chaudhry saga and impending parliamentary elections will mean that the general will soon be once again walking a tortuous legal and political tightrope. The offensive against the Red Mosque will also create further anti-Musharraf sentiment in various conservative and extremist circles, and as a consequence red24 believes that attacks on government institutions, military installations and foreign interests can be expected across Pakistan. red24 advises all foreign nationals in Pakistan to exercise extreme caution and vigilance at all times, and to avoid non-essential travel to the North West Frontier Province and all travel to the Federally Administered Tribal Area.
Tags: travel safety, red24, red mosque, pakistan
<< Newer Story Older Story >>
Add your comments
