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NEW JERSEY, JULY 11 - Lal Masjid's deputy cleric Maulana Abdul Rashid, who on his
return from the Afghan War added "Ghazi" to his last
name became Tuesday a "Shaheed" instead, to many. His
elder brother
Aziz is in custody. Their mother died "in a hail of
bullet" according to one source. An eyewitness said she died
of suffocation from tear gases fired into her bunker during
the final assault.
Apparently saying he was "heavily under duress from his
allies", President Musharraf in the early hours of Tuesday
ordered the military to end the seven-day saga instead of
continuing with the negotiations, reported Asia Times Online
(ATOL).
Quoting unconfirmed reports, it said President Musharraf
personally led the assault, along with Corps Commander
Rawalpindi Lieutenant-General Tariq Majid. The ninth Rangers
who were involved in the Bugti operations were also there
side by side the infamous 111 Brigade of the 10th corps. SSG's Hamza company
reportedly spearheaded the commando operations.
The media were barred from the mosque complex's immediate vicinity.
According to ATOL's contacts, Musharraf said, "They
(the US) want
targets in Operation Silence," referring to the code name
for Tuesday's final assault on the mosque. That is, the
militants should be arrested or killed, it said.
On Monday, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack,
commenting on the operation, said, "We believe Pakistan is a good
ally, a good friend in fighting terror. They have an issue
there with violent extremism. It's an issue that affects the
Pakistani people as well as others in the region and the
US."
By Tuesday afternoon, Pakistani forces were in the final
stages of clearing the mosque. They encountered fierce
resistance, but the mosque itself was said to be secure.
There was still resistance from fighters holed up in a
nearby women's seminary associated with the mosque. The
media reported that at least 70 fighters and fifteen
soldiers were killed.
The number of women and children casualties inside the
mosque complex still remains a mystery though.
Intelligence reports quoted by the media had said there were as
many as 1000 to 2000 holed up inside the mosque
complex, apparently being held hostage - used as human
shields by the battle-hardened Jihadi militants.
The media was barred from visiting hospitals. Security
forces were ordered to shoot journalists asking on body
counts and or the number of injured brought to the
hospitals.
On Tuesday, reports said authorities had ordered additional 800
coffin clothes (shrouds) and 300 white Chaddars (white
sheets). An Edhi personnel told AAJ YV that
white Chaddars are generally used to
collect body parts.
According to Saleem Shahzad of ATOL, at 5am Tuesday morning,
deputy cleric Ghazi had sent text messages to journalists,
including him saying, "My death is certain."
While the Lal Masjid operation has yielded the first seizure of
Taliban assets in Pakistan, says the ATOL article, it is
certain to have a strong ripple effect throughout the
country as the mosque has strong links with jihadis and the
Pakistani Taliban in the tribal areas on the border with
Afghanistan.
The next episode has already begun, the author says, in
Batkhaila, North West Frontier Province, where the
pro-Taliban Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Moham has clashed
with the military and seized all highways in the area,
including on the Silk Road leading to China.
It is only a matter of time before the US-led "war on
terror" formally crosses the Pakistani border, the article
observes.
ATOL contacts claimed that the last minute negotiation
was complicated by the sudden appearance of a
delegation of members of Parliament belonging to the Muttahida Quami
Movement (MQM) - the government's coalition partners in
Sindh and at the center. They are believed to have met with
a US official at his official residence, after which the
situation changed within an hour, the article claims.
"Yes, the talks were successful. The draft was written.
Abdul Rasheed Ghazi was to be allowed a safe passage, but
then the draft was sent to the president and he amended it.
Things were back to Square 1 and the talks failed," a
dejected Grand Mufti Usmani reportedly told Asia Times Online
(ATOL) by
telephone. He rarely leaves his seminary in Karachi, but was
specially invited to Islamabad by the government for the
talks.
Minister for Religious Affairs, Ejaz ul-Haq also confirmed
that Ghazi was to be given a safe passage, but then had
suddenly expressed concern for "foreign militants" and the
situation changed. ATOL reportedly talked to several members
of the negotiating team but they said Ghazi never
specifically mentioned "foreign militants". "He always asked
for guarantees for him as well as for those who were with
him inside, but he never mentioned 'foreign militants',"
said Maulana Hanif Jalandari, the secretary general of the
Federal Board of Islamic Seminaries.
The high-profile negotiating team included the Grand Mufti
of Pakistan, Mufti Rafi Usmani; Minister of Religious
Affairs Ejaz ul-Haq; and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, president
of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League(Q).
Some observers say Lal Masjid had become a thorn for the
establishment even before their most recent obscurantisms.
The mosque and its cleric brothers drew the government ire
and leaped into prominence in
2004 when its prayer leader, Aziz, Ghazi's brother, issued a
fatwa (religious decree) that any Pakistani soldiers
killed in the tribal area of South Waziristan should not be
entitled to Muslim funeral prayers or be buried in Muslim
graveyards.
The army was at the time engaged in an offensive against
al-Qaeda and foreign militants in the area.
The controversial decree was then signed by 500 Muslim
scholars and it ignited serious discontent in the army,
eventually prompting Pakistan to pull out from South
Waziristan and North Waziristan after striking peace deals
with the Pakistani Taliban, says the article.
Later, the authorities claimed that a link between the Lal
Masjid brothers and al-Qaeda had been exposed when Ghazi's
car - laden with arms and ammunition - was recovered from a
person named Usman.
The religious community intervened and asked for evidence.
Religious Affairs Minister Ejaz ul-Haq was tasked with
mediating and ensuring an impartial investigation by
Military Intelligence. Ghazi spent a few weeks in custody,
but no direct connections with terror were established,
except that he knew all the main players, including Osama
bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar, who had
corresponded with him.
There are conflicting reports on details surrounding Ghazi's
death.
A bullet hit Ghazi on one of his legs and he was asked to
surrender after he was injured, but he refused and was
ultimately killed, some sources said.
Another report said Ghazi was killed in firing by some
militants who were hiding along with him when he came out of
a bunker and was heading to surrender. ATOL says the fate
of Abdul Rasheed Ghazi is not known. But authorities have
confirmed his death.
Meanwhile, retired General Hamid Gul, a former director
general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) told ATOL, "a
serious situation is evolving....the Lal Masjid operation
will simply radicalize the religious centers of the country.
There are 250,000-275,000 mosques in the country. Think what
would happen if all those centers were radicalized."
"The jihadis want this sort of situation, and eventually it
will prompt Western armies to enter Pakistan to attack
Taliban and al-Qaeda targets."
An official told Asia Times Online on condition of
anonymity: "they [those remaining in the mosque] are not
ordinary students or jihadis. They are very well-trained
militants. The way they trapped our commandos, it just could
not be the handiwork of a Pakistani jihadi. We are sure that
there are some Arabs inside, and possibly a high-value
target is commanding them."
The establishment later gave out the names of two Arab
commanders of al-Qaeda - Abu Zar and Abu Masoor - as being
in the mosque.
On Sunday, Ghazi sent text messages to the mobile telephones
of all the journalists with whom he had previously been in
contact. It read: "We have all tied bombs to our bodies. We
will fight till the last and will not embarrass our
friends."
The government has said the forces did not encounter any
suicide bombers during the operation in the complex.
"Father of the Taliban" Maulana Sami ul-Haq, who is director
and chancellor of a famous madrassa in NWFP and a
politician, has warned that if Lal Masjid is destroyed,
suicide attacks can be expected all over the country.
In anticipation, the government has declared Red Alert. So
far so good.
[But]
It is a pity that our army was preparing youths to seize Lal
Qila [the Red Fort of Delhi] and they ended up seizing the
Lal Masjid [Red Mosque]," retired ISI chief General Gul
told ATOL.
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