11 dead, several injured. Police have taken control of Lal Masjid.
Re: Suicide attack near Aabpara Chowk
Inna lilahi wa inna ilayhi rajiun
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Pakistan is messed beyond repair. We should just let the NWFP go, we'd be better off without them.
Islamabad rocked again!
Was the mosque emptied diligently by the protesters before this?
The Lal Masjid legacy stretches farther than conceived…
God bless all…
**Another suicide attack rocks Islamabad, several killed **
ISLAMABAD: **Another suicide attack rocked Islamabad on Friday amid police baton-charge and tear gas shelling on the protesters around the Lal mosque, the initial reports said.
**
An explosion, possibly suicide attack occurred at Chhaper hotel near Abpara market, the reports said. The attack occurred about 200 feet off the Lal mosque premises.
Death of eight people including four cops of and four civilians have been confirmed by the hospital sources so far.
Several people were feared killed and scores injured, the eyewitness said. Some 20 injured have been shifted to Poly Clinic and PIMS hospital, several were reported in critical condition.
Red alert situation was already declared in the capital, though the authorities did not expect any attack or bomb blast, the sources said.
According to a foreign news agency a suicide bomber blew himself up among a group of policemen near the LalMosque in the Pakistani.
**“A man detonated explosives strapped to his body among two rows of Punjab police constabulary members who were there on duty because of the unrest at the
Red Mosque,” the security official was quoted as saying on condition of anonymity.
“At least ten people have been killed and many wounded.” Blood and pieces of flesh were strewn at the site of the blast near one of the main markets in Islamabad.
The explosion destroyed several nearby shops. **
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arrest Liaqat Baloch and his fellow MMA’ians. These guys were politicisng the issue of a mosque and prayer. The newsman on Dawn News asked Liaqat, surely these people r there to offer prayers and thats between a person and god..what does that have to do with abdul aziz..what r u doing to prevent people from taking law into their own hand so that another operation silence is not launched and liaqat goes off on a conspiracy theory of america being hatched through musharraf. 
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This painful saga just goes on and on
BBC NEWS | South Asia | Pakistan's 'isolated' president](BBC NEWS | South Asia | Pakistan's 'isolated' president)
Pakistan’s ‘isolated’ president
By Ahmed Rashid, Lahore
Ahmed Rashid, guest journalist and writer on Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia, reflects on the difficulties facing Pakistan’s leader.
To many Pakistanis it seems that President Pervez Musharraf is becoming increasingly isolated.
The latest headache comes in the shape of lawyers who have been staging rallies across the country in protest of what they see as his politically-motivated suspension of the chief justice of the Supreme Court.
The sight of black-jacketed lawyers smattered in blood after clashes in Lahore with police does little for the image of Pakistan.
But before this, there have been signs of Islamic extremism gaining strength. Ordinary citizens are complaining of worsening law and order.
And Pakistan’s relations with the United States, Europe and neighbouring countries are becoming more strained.
Kalashnikov-wielding women This is an election year for President Musharraf. But two issues are threatening him.
The first is the military’s failure to assert the government’s writ over large areas of the country and its refusal to tackle Islamic extremists head-on.
The second development is the assertion of some extremists that they no longer recognise the legitimacy of the state and will only do so when an Islamic revolution takes place.
Judges, soldiers, policemen, lawyers and ordinary women and children were the victims of a dozen suicide bombings by extremists in February. The authorities have made few arrests.
In Islamabad, foreign diplomats were shocked when the government gave in to some 3,000 Kalashnikov-wielding militant women, who refused to evacuate a religious school that had been set for demolition because it had been built illegally.
In the heart of the nation’s capital the women refused to recognise any orders from the state.
The cabinet was divided with some ministers, including the pro-Islamist right-wing Minister of Religious Affairs Ijaz ul Haq openly siding with the militant women.
Meanwhile extremists are threatening female politicians.
Law and order is breaking down in the major cities.
Up to 200 crimes and robberies are being committed every a day in major cities - in Karachi the figures are double that.
Much of the prevalent crime is committed by unemployed youth, who form gangs to steal cars, motor bikes and mobile phones.
Public criticism
Another blow to Pakistan’s self-image came when most of the planes of the state-owned Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) were banned from landing in European Union capitals because of safety concerns. PIA officials and government ministers denied there was any problem
On the international front, Gen Musharraf’s credibility is at stake as his commitment to deal with terrorism is being questioned by the US and leading Nato countries.
On a five-hour visit to Islamabad on 26 February, US Vice President Dick Cheney warned the president about Pakistan’s lack of action against Taleban and al-Qaeda leaders operating from its soil.
In several packed hearings in the US Congress, retired US military officers and other American experts testified that Pakistan was deliberately harbouring the Taleban to use as a political card in Afghanistan.
Nato countries not normally known for their public criticism of allies have been openly questioning Pakistan’s continued commitment to the “war on terrorism”.
Meanwhile, Iran has become the latest country, after India and Afghanistan, to accuse it of interference in its internal affairs.
In early March, Iranian leaders accused Pakistan of becoming a sanctuary for terrorists, after several Iranians were killed by militants who then fled across the border to Pakistan. Iran is also suspicious that Pakistan is supporting the US agenda of trying to create a Sunni alliance of Arab countries aimed at Shia Iran. Pakistan counters that Iran is helping the insurgency by rebels in Pakistani Balochistan.
Pakistan is now the most fenced in nation in the world. Iran is now following India’s example and erecting a fence on its border with Pakistan, while Islamabad wants to erect a fence on its border with Afghanistan.
All these problems come ahead of polls in which Gen Musharraf wants to be re-elected for another five years by the current parliament, while continuing to remain army chief.
Expectations of a free and fair elections are lowered daily as Gen Musharraf insists in public statements that people vote for his nominees, while newspapers report that the ubiquitous intelligence services are already interviewing prospective parliamentary candidates to ascertain their loyalty to the president.
Pakistanis are used to military rulers prolonging their innings indefinitely and also to rigged elections.
But what they are not used to is the growing rise of extremism around the country from the rugged mountains of Waziristan to the pristine avenues of Islamabad. For a country armed with nuclear weapons, ordinary people are getting scared of the future.
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^
That's an article from March 15th in case you did not notice and has little bearing on what is happening now.
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Innal’la ha waa innaa Ilayhay Rajee.on
The question is why did the Govt. allow these terrorists to takeover the mosque again?
They should keep all of these locked up. This is the result of releasing these murderers.
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The Supreme Court demanded these people be released.
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Pakistan is messed beyond repair. We should just let the NWFP go, we'd be better off without them.
Let NWFP go and what are you going to be left with?
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The Supreme Court demanded these people be released.
Correction: Supreme Court demanded that all those students against whom there are no charges should be released. Do u want the supreme arbiter of law in the land to support illegal confinement?
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Not again!! can't bloody believe it, can they not even leave ppl in peace to offer their juma prayers:(:(:(:(:(
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Paistan is under attack from terrorists, and the Supreme Court should not have butted in and demanded the govt release potential suspects. Our biased judges will now be in the dock for having demanded the release of these people, whom the govt rightly wanted to keep in custody longer. Today's tragic events prove who was wrong in demanding their release.
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Since when has the govt. listened to the supreme court. it has a shining record of sacking CJ who challenged their authority regarding "missing" persons
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I think the govt should have continued to ignore the Supreme Court, and then we would not have so many people being killed today. It's obvious now that the CJ and some biased judges do not know what they are doing.
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If the govt. had acted straight away in the Lal masjid case instead of playing politics we would have had none of this. Using extremists to further your own agenda is a very dangerous game and more than the govt. the nation has paid for it.
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If the govt. had acted straight away in the Lal masjid case instead of playing politics we would have had none of this. Using extremists to further your own agenda is a very dangerous game and more than the govt. the nation has paid for it.
Brother, some 10 to 12 years ago I was talking to some of my friends from JI. (Actually, at one time, ages ago, I was also member of JTI and use to support JI and wanted to have so-called Islamic government in Pakistan). I told them that it is very difficult to impose Islam in Pakistan, because people psyche would not accept that (well, at that time my knowledge of Islam was little and I use to think that JI is icon of Islam). One person, who was quite active in party, told me that not to worry, as slowly we would get hold of all crucial positions in army and would have influence in government, then it would be easy to impose Islam by force.
Now I know what they mean. They know that they could not come to power through democracy. So what they are doing? These people would love to have political parties fighting with each other and looting the country, while they can spread their influence in all crucial government positions, especially army. I believe that if government would not have done crackdown now, probably in near future, we would have seen Taliban like government in Pakistan too. I don’t know, it is possible even now.
Just imagine that instead of President Musharraf, the person in power was someone of Taliban. Now think what would have happened?
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^ That's an article from March 15th in case you did not notice and has little bearing on what is happening now.
Thanks for pointing that out but the article does have some relevance to today's events. Militancy is the greatest threat facing Pakistan today and we need to fight these lunatic 'students' and extremist mullahs who seem so bent on challeging our freedom and our way of life. This evil of extremism and militancy in the name of Islam must be nipped in the bud. Perhaps it's time to bring back public flogging