Islamabad Muslim Cleric Hate
Muslim cleric held over Varanasi
blasts
Press
Trust of India
Varanasi, March 30:
A Muslim cleric
has been picked up by the Special Task Force from his residence in Allahabad for
interrogation in connection with his alleged role in the terror attacks here,
officials sources said today.
The cleric, identified as Waliullah, from the Islamabad locality under Phulpur police circle area of Allahabad was taken into custody by the STF team on Sunday night for interrogation in connection with his alleged role in he March 7 twin blasts in Sankat Mochan temple and cantonment railway station here, based on reports of suspicious activities in the past, sources said.
STF picked up Walliullah as soon as he returned home following questioning by the local intelligence unit and police officials at Phulpur police station, they said.
He is being interrogated at an undisclosed location amid charges that he and his family provided refuge to the terrorists in their house in 2001 following which he and his two brothers were booked under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code on sedition charges, the trial of which was still pending with the lower court in Allahabad district.
Meanwhile, Allahabad SSP Vijay Singh Meena told PTI over phone that the alleged suspect in the terror attacks in Varanasi was missing from his house for past six days, but refused to confirm that he had been taken into custody by the STF team, which was probing the terror attacks.
Meena also said that Waliullah's family members had met him and requested his intervention to find out details of his location and also whether he was under the custody of the STF.
Muslim cleric taken into custody for alleged role in blasts
VARANASI, MAR 30 (PTI)
A Muslim cleric has been picked up by the Special Task Force from his residence in Allahabad for interrogation in connection with his alleged role in the terror attacks here, officials sources said today.
The cleric, identified as Waliullah, from the Islamabad locality under Phulpur police circle area of Allahabad was taken into custody by the STF team on Sunday night for interrogation in connection with his alleged role in the March seven twin blasts in Sankat Mochan temple and Cantonment railway station here, based on reports of suspicious activities in the past, sources said.
STF picked up Walliullah as soon as he returned home following questioning by the Local Intelligence Unit and police officials at Phulpur police station, they said.
He is being interrogated at an undisclosed location amid charges that he and his family provided refuge to the terrorits in their house in 2001 following which he and his two brothers were booked under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code on sedition charges, the trial of which was still pending with the lower court in Allahabad district.
Meanwhile, Allahabad SSP Vijay Singh Meena told PTI over phone that the alleged suspect in the terror attacks in Varanasi was missing from his house for past six days, but refused to confirm that he had been taken into custody by the STF team, which was probing the terror attacks.
Meena also said that Waliullah's family members had met him and requested his intervention to find out details of his location and also whether he was under the custody of the STF.
Pakistani Cleric Captured
Under Burqa
Wednesday July 4, 2007
By MUNIR AHMED
Associated Press Writer
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Security forces besieging a radical mosque in the Pakistani capital captured its top cleric Wednesday as he tried to sneak out of the complex in a woman's burqa, and more than 1,000 of his followers surrendered.
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf deployed the army to subdue the remaining militants holed up in Islamabad's Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, whose clerics have defied the government for months with a drive to impose a Taliban-style version of Islamic law in the city.
The tensions had exploded into a daylong battle Tuesday between security forces and students - some of whom were heavily armed and masked. Sixteen people were killed, officials said.
The government ordered the militants to lay down their arms and surrender by Wednesday morning, as it positioned armored vehicles and helicopters around the mosque in a show of strength.
A security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said authorities captured the mosque's top cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, after a female police officer tried to search his body, which was concealed by a full-length black burqa.
The officer began shouting ``This is not a woman,'' the official said, prompting male officers to seize him. ``The suspect later turned out to be the mosque's chief cleric,'' the official said.
An AP Television News cameraman saw plainclothes police bundling the gray-bearded cleric into the back of a car, which sped away.
``They have no options but to surrender,'' said Javed Iqbal Cheema, a government spokesman. ``The government is not into dialogue with these clerics.''
The mosque's deputy leader, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, said earlier in the day that he was prepared to talk with the government, but added, ``We will continue to defend ourselves.''
As evening fell, sporadic gunfire erupted around the mosque and at an adjacent women's seminary while three helicopter gunships circled overhead. Scores of police and soldiers, some armed with sniper rifles, watched as students filed out of the compound. A number of the women were in tears.
The city's deputy administrator, Chaudhry Mohammed Ali, said more than 1,000 had surrendered. 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.
Minister of Information Mohammed Ali Durrani said there could be ``a few hundred'' or more people remaining inside the mosque complex. It was unclear how many were hardened militants.
One who decided to give up, 15-year-old Maryam Qayyeum, said those who stayed in the seminary ``only want martyrdom.''
``They are happy,'' she said. ``They don't want to go home.''
Qayyeum said mosque leaders were not trying to stop students from giving up. But her mother, who had come to take her home said, ``They are making speeches. They want to incite them.''
Johar Ali, 20, who had come to the mosque to support the militants several days ago, said there were still hundreds inside. But Ali did not report seeing any suicide bombers, who the mosque leaders claimed were ready to launch attacks.
The violence started Tuesday when male and female student followers of the mosque - some of them masked and armed - rushed toward a police checkpoint. Gunfire broke out among the students and security forces, sparking a daylong series of clashes.
A senior government spokesman, Anwar Mahmood, said 16 people were killed Tuesday, though he declined to give a breakdown of the victims. Earlier, the government said they had included militants, innocent bystanders, a journalist and members of the security forces.
Ghazi told The Associated Press that 20 of his students had been killed by security forces, including two young men climbing to the top of the mosque for morning prayers Wednesday.
A young woman was also shot and wounded on the roof of the women's seminary, he said. ``She was shot by sniper fire. They are shooting directly at us,'' he said in a telephone interview.
After a meeting of top officials that included Musharraf, Deputy Interior Minister Zafar Warriach said the government imposed an immediate curfew on the area. He said authorities had run out of patience after a six-month standoff with the hard-line clerics at the mosque.
``The government has decided that those people from the madrassa who are defaming Pakistan and Islam will face an operation,'' Warriach said.
In the past six months, the clerics have challenged the government by sending students from the mosque to kidnap alleged prostitutes and police in an anti-vice campaign.
The bloodshed has added to a sense of crisis in Pakistan, where Musharraf - a major ally of President Bush - already 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 mosque siege sparked street protests Tuesday in the cities of Lahore and Quetta organized by radical religious parties.
On Wednesday, officials said a suicide car bomber rammed a vehicle into a Pakistan army convoy near the Afghan border, killing five soldiers and five civilians. In northwestern Pakistan, unidentified assailants fired a rocket at a police station, killing one officer and wounding four, and an explosive killed four people and injured two district officials.
It was not known if the incidents were linked to the mosque crisis.
Associated Press reporters
Sadaqat Jan and Stephen Graham in Islamabad and Riaz Khan in Peshawar
contributed to this report.
Chief cleric killed at Pakistan mosque
Jul 10, 10:33 AM EDT
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- The chief cleric of the Red Mosque was killed Tuesday as Pakistani troops flushed out entrenched militants inside a women's religious school in room by room fighting, state-run television said.
Pakistan Television quoted the Interior Ministry as saying that the radical cleric, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, died during the attack. Two security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press, said Ghazi's body was found in the basement.
Commandos stormed the sprawling mosque compound before dawn. Twelve hours later, the army said the complex was 80 percent cleared of militants but it was still trying to root out well-armed defenders the government accuses of holding a number of hostages. A local relief agency said the army asked for 400 white funeral shrouds.
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 mosque.
Khalid Pervez, the city's top administrator, said as many as 50 women were the first to be freed by the militants and had emerged from the complex following the escape of 26 children.
Mohammed Khalid Jamil, a reporter for the local Aaj television network, was among journalists who said they saw dozens of women and girls walking on a road away from the mosque. They were wearing burqas, he said.
A military official who demande because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said the women included the wife and daughter of Abdul Aziz, the former head of the mosque who was arrested while trying to flee the complex last week.
It was not clear how many noncombatants were being held hostage or were staying behind because they believed in the mosque's cause. Last week, a number of those who left the mosque, including young women, said their colleagues were there of their own free will and prepared to die.
Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said hostages were still being held and that fighting was intense: "We are fighting room by room." He added that stun grenades were being used to avoid casualties among the hostages.
Abdul Sattar Edhi, head of the private relief agency Edhi Foundation, told reporters that the army had asked him to prepare 400 white shrouds used for covering the dead.
The siege of one of the capital's most prominent mosques was prompted by clashes last Tuesday between security forces and supporters of the mosque's hardline clerics. More than 80 people have been killed in the fighting since July 3.
The vigilante anti-vice campaign has proved an embarrassment to President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in its war on terror, and underlined his administration's failure to control extremist religious schools.
But a major loss of life at the Red Mosque could further turn public opinion against the president, who already faces mounting opposition for his bungled attempts to fire the country's chief justice.
Arshad said about 50 militants have been killed in Tuesday's assault, while eight soldiers had died and 29 were wounded.
To protest the siege, more than 100 armed tribesmen and religious students near the northwestern town of Batagram temporarily blocked a road that leads to neighboring China, police officials said.
And in the eastern city of Multan, more than 500 Islamic religious school students rallied, chanting "Down with Musharraf" and blocking a main road by burning tires.
The U.S. Embassy recommended that Americans in Pakistan to limit their movement in the area of the northwestern city of Peshawar, warning that "terrorist elements" were threatening attacks on Pakistani government, police and army institutions in retaliation for the Red Mosque siege.
After efforts to negotiate a surrender failed, commandos attacked from three directions about 4 a.m. and quickly cleared the ground floor of the mosque, Arshad said. Some 20 children who rushed toward the advancing troops were brought to safety, he said.
Besides the women, Arshad said about 50 suspected militants, some of them youngsters, have been captured or emerged from the mosque since fighting began Tuesday.
Arshad said the army attack was now focused on the women's school but that some militants were still firing from the tops of the mosque's minarets. He said the entire compound included 75 rooms, large basements and expansive courtyards. About 80 percent of it had been cleared, he said.
An officer, who demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said troops had cornered the mosque's chief cleric, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, in the basement of the school but held back from an all-out assault because a number of children were being held there as hostages.
Troops demanded four times that he surrender, but his followers responded with gunfire, and Ghazi said he was ready to die rather than give up, the officer said.
Arshad said the well-trained militants were armed with machine guns, rocket launchers and gasoline bombs and had booby-trapped some areas.
"Those who surrender will be arrested, but the others will be treated as combatants and killed," he said.
Pakistan's Religious Affairs Minister Mohammed Ijaz ul-Haq said foreign militants were among those fighting with the mosque defenders, quoting Ghazi.
Ghazi told the private Geo TV network in a telephone interview about two hours after Tuesday's assault began that his mother had been wounded by gunshot. One of Ghazi's aides, Abdul Rahman, later said she had died.
"The government is using full force. This is naked aggression," he said. "My martyrdom is certain now."
Associated Press reporters Munir Ahmad, Sadaqat Jan and Stephen Graham contributed to this report.