July 06, 2007
Musharraf's Challenge At The Red Mosque
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is practicing restraint. Analysts were prepared for a final, decisive assault on Islamabad's Red Mosque, where a small group of militants are still entrenched and resisting surrender. The standoff at the historic mosque has stretched into its third day, but no definitive siege has come.
The mosque siege is the focal point for the escalating tension between Pakistan's military government and radical clerics trying to push the capital -- and eventually the whole country -- toward sharia, or orthodox Islamic law. The seeds of the movement were sown in 2001, when Islamic parties rejected the president's stated support for U.S. anti-terrorism operations.
Musharraf is earning praise for withholding military force, letting slide a deadline of 11 a.m. Wednesday for all students to evacuate the mosque. The government also allowed frantic parents to approach the security barriers surrounding the mosque to try to persuade their children to leave.
More than 1,200 students were hunkered down inside the mosque when the standoff began, but nearly all of them gradually surrendered and exited. BBC News also reported that students who left the mosque with their parents were released after questioning, but students who left alone were taken into custody.
Musharraf may not be earning points among the Pakistani people -- one father told BBC News Wednesday that his two daughters were trapped inside and blamed the government for the situation, saying "They are 14 and 10 years old. I have talked to them and they are willing to die for Islam" -- but the decision not to attack with force probably saved at least a few lives. It also has saved some political face for the embattled president, who took over the government in a 1999 coup and emphasizes his military ties by constantly wearing a uniform.
Reports on the death tolls are unclear and journalists have very limited access to the mosque site. The interior minister said yesterday that 19 people had been killed in the fighting, but today Bloomberg News cited a local TV station that claims 80 people, including 30 female students, have died. The clashes began Tuesday, when nine people were killed in the first burst of fighting.
One cleric leader was arrested Wednesday, when Pakistani authorities caught him trying to sneak out of the mosque disguised in a burqa. Maulana Abdul Aziz -- the older of two brothers leading the insurrection -- subsequently called for his fellow militants to give up their positions and surrender.
By midday Thursday, only 50 or 60 militants remained in the mosque. The military resumed its efforts to roust them, trying to blast holes through the building's walls. Gunfire and mortar shelling could be heard throughout the day Thursday and into today.
But the head of the mosque categorically rejected the idea of surrender today. In a TV interview, cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi said, "Since we are only defending ourselves, we have enough ammunition. We prefer death to surrender.''
Despite the gunfire and damage to the mosque itself, Musharraf's government again withheld a full-scale attack and tried to lure him out peacefully -- although the cleric's request for safe passage was denied.
The Christian Science Monitor has extensive background, and BBC News has photos of the current conflict.
