Funeral held for Pak religious leader
Friday, 13 July 2007
BASTI ABDULLAH, Pakistan, Jul12 (AP): The captured chief cleric of the Red Mosque was allowed to lead funeral prayers for his slain brother Thursday, and forecast that the death of the mosque's militant defenders would push Pakistan toward an "Islamic revolution."
The army crackdown on the radical mosque has raised the standing of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf among moderates and foreign backers worried about rising extremism in Pakistan.
But it has given hard-liners a rallying point, new martyrs to mourn and has prompted calls from al-Qaida and Taliban for revenge attacks.
Troops combing the Islamabad mosque and its adjoining seminary for girls found Abdul Rashid Ghazi's body among the remains of at least 73 people after the 35-hour commando assault ended Wednesday.
The remains of dozens of militants were lowered into temporary graves in the capital early Thursday.
Officials released Ghazi's body directly to his relatives, who carried it to his ancestral village in Punjab province for burial Thursday.
Police escorted Maulana Abdul Aziz, who was caught during the eight-day siege while trying to flee disguised as a woman, to Basti Abdullah so that he could lead the prayers at his brother's funeral at a seminary set up by his father.
The brother took over the running of the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in the capital after their father's assassination in a sectarian attack in 1998.
About two dozen police commandos led Aziz into the madrassa compound and escorted him back after the funeral prayers and drove him away in a white police pickup truck.
Several female relatives of Ghazi dressed in black veils flashed victory signs to reporters as police escorted them to a waiting car after the funeral.
Some 700 police, including 100 plainclothes officers, were deployed for security at the gathering, area police chief Maqsoodul Hassan Chaudhry said.
According to official reports, 106 people died in eight days of fighting around the Red Mosque and its adjoining seminary for girls, which had challenged the government with an increasingly aggressive anti-vice campaign in the capital.
Officials said the dead included 10 soldiers, one police ranger and several civilians killed in the crossfire of the initial street battles that erupted July 3.
After the government cleared the compound of its die-hard defenders Wednesday, Al-Qaida's deputy leader joined the militant outcry against Musharraf, calling on Pakistanis to wage holy war to avenge the army assault.
In a video message, Ayman al-Zawahri told Pakistanis their president "rubbed your honor in the dirt."
Ghazi's death was a "dirty, despicable crime" that can "only be washed away by repentance or blood," said al-Zawahri, who is believed to be hiding near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
The bodies of about 70 of Ghazi's militant followers were buried early Thursday in a graveyard near Islamabad's police academy.
Officials said they took photographs, fingerprints and DNA samples from the bodies before the simple wooden coffins were lowered into shallow, temporary graves to help relatives identify and claim the bodies later.
Momin Agha, a city official, said 69 bodies, including those of three minors, were buried.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Wednesday that commandos had found no corpses of women and children. The army said seven or eight of the bodies had been burned beyond recognition.
A group of 27 women and three children emerged from the mosque Tuesday, among about 1,300 people who the government says escaped or otherwise left the compound after the siege began.
However, there is skepticism about the military's account and speculation that the toll could be much higher. The Dawn newspaper Thursday cited an anonymous witness who said he had entered the mosque and seen "hundreds" of corpses.
The extremists had used the mosque as a base to send out radicalised students to enforce their version of Islamic morality, including abducting alleged prostitutes and trying to "re-educate" them at the compound.
Elite Special Services Group commandos went in after unsuccessful attempts to get the heavily armed militants to surrender.
Aziz warned that the government would act against any other madrassa, or religious school, found to be involved in militancy.
The army crackdown on the radical mosque has raised the standing of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf among moderates and foreign backers worried about rising extremism in Pakistan.
But it has given hard-liners a rallying point, new martyrs to mourn and has prompted calls from al-Qaida and Taliban for revenge attacks.
Troops combing the Islamabad mosque and its adjoining seminary for girls found Abdul Rashid Ghazi's body among the remains of at least 73 people after the 35-hour commando assault ended Wednesday.
The remains of dozens of militants were lowered into temporary graves in the capital early Thursday.
Officials released Ghazi's body directly to his relatives, who carried it to his ancestral village in Punjab province for burial Thursday.
Police escorted Maulana Abdul Aziz, who was caught during the eight-day siege while trying to flee disguised as a woman, to Basti Abdullah so that he could lead the prayers at his brother's funeral at a seminary set up by his father.
The brother took over the running of the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in the capital after their father's assassination in a sectarian attack in 1998.
About two dozen police commandos led Aziz into the madrassa compound and escorted him back after the funeral prayers and drove him away in a white police pickup truck.
Several female relatives of Ghazi dressed in black veils flashed victory signs to reporters as police escorted them to a waiting car after the funeral.
Some 700 police, including 100 plainclothes officers, were deployed for security at the gathering, area police chief Maqsoodul Hassan Chaudhry said.
According to official reports, 106 people died in eight days of fighting around the Red Mosque and its adjoining seminary for girls, which had challenged the government with an increasingly aggressive anti-vice campaign in the capital.
Officials said the dead included 10 soldiers, one police ranger and several civilians killed in the crossfire of the initial street battles that erupted July 3.
After the government cleared the compound of its die-hard defenders Wednesday, Al-Qaida's deputy leader joined the militant outcry against Musharraf, calling on Pakistanis to wage holy war to avenge the army assault.
In a video message, Ayman al-Zawahri told Pakistanis their president "rubbed your honor in the dirt."
Ghazi's death was a "dirty, despicable crime" that can "only be washed away by repentance or blood," said al-Zawahri, who is believed to be hiding near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
The bodies of about 70 of Ghazi's militant followers were buried early Thursday in a graveyard near Islamabad's police academy.
Officials said they took photographs, fingerprints and DNA samples from the bodies before the simple wooden coffins were lowered into shallow, temporary graves to help relatives identify and claim the bodies later.
Momin Agha, a city official, said 69 bodies, including those of three minors, were buried.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Wednesday that commandos had found no corpses of women and children. The army said seven or eight of the bodies had been burned beyond recognition.
A group of 27 women and three children emerged from the mosque Tuesday, among about 1,300 people who the government says escaped or otherwise left the compound after the siege began.
However, there is skepticism about the military's account and speculation that the toll could be much higher. The Dawn newspaper Thursday cited an anonymous witness who said he had entered the mosque and seen "hundreds" of corpses.
The extremists had used the mosque as a base to send out radicalised students to enforce their version of Islamic morality, including abducting alleged prostitutes and trying to "re-educate" them at the compound.
Elite Special Services Group commandos went in after unsuccessful attempts to get the heavily armed militants to surrender.
Aziz warned that the government would act against any other madrassa, or religious school, found to be involved in militancy.