Swat attacks are revenge by Lal Masjid students for military operation: Maulana Aziz

[GoldenAsif]

Lal Masjid Khateeb here condoning ‘revenge’ suicide bombings. Don’t know why he was let out by Zardari.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/13+situation+in+tribal+areas+linked+to+lal+masjid+operation–za-01

ISLAMABAD: The recently released Khateeb of Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) Maulana Abdul Aziz has said that whatever situation has emerged in the troubled areas of Swat, Buner and Dir was a reaction of a military operation conducted on the mosque in 2007.

Talking to Dawn he said most of the students of Lal Masjid who suffered due to the operation belonged to those areas and now they were taking their revenge.

‘I had warned the then government not to go for the military operation on the mosque otherwise the situation would get out of control and I will not be responsible for the reaction,’ he said.

‘Most of my students belonged to Swat, Buner, Dir and some nearby areas and they are reacting and taking revenge of the blood of their relatives and friends,’ Aziz said while expressing ignorance about the exact number deaths in the mosque during the operation.

‘Now they are not under my control and whatever they are doing in Swat and Buner is their own decision,’ he said when asked why he does not ask his students to keep themselves away from militants.

Aziz was of the view that hundreds of people were killed, including women and children, in the Lal Masjid operation that also claimed the lives of 10 security personnel.

However, former President Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf had recently said that a total of 94 people were killed by the security forces in the operation and they all were armed militants. He claimed that not a single woman and child was killed in that incident.

Coincidently Aziz has been released on bail simultaneously with the approval of the Swat deal by President Asif Ali Zardari despite the fact that he was facing 26 different cases.

A day after his return to Lal Masjid, the controversial cleric called for a movement to implement Sharia in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the intolerant behaviour of Lal Masjid students and display of arms are again back in the heart of the federal capital.

It is believed that Aziz was released under a ‘deal’ as he vowed not to seek any action against those who, according to him, were responsible for July 2007 Lal Masjid operation. The cleric claimed his release was not part of any deal with the government.

He said he had never supported suicide bombings in the country and he had only threatened the government by saying that: ‘If any operation is conducted at Lal Masjid suicide attacks could take place through the country.’

Responding to a question about whether his students were involved in suicide bombings in the country, he said: ‘As far as my students are concerned I know that they cannot commit suicide for any reason but I cannot guarantee what they are doing in their native towns.’

[Spock]

Re: Swat attacks are revenge by Lal Masjid students for military operation: Maulana A

Laal Masjid was a huge blunder, and the senile retarded General handed the fiasco in the worst way, which kinda leads me to believe what an incompetent soldier Musharraf was. If you really want to defeat them, cut out their food/water supplies but no, he had to deploy all the soldiers, phosphorous bombs and other stuff to defeat them. In an interview he made a fool out of himself by saying 'joh andar rayein gey tu marey jaye gai, bahir ayo'. Apart from that they pretty much made an entire warzone out of the area but couldnt turn off the cell phone towers to prevent the people inside from issuing interviews. This guy burqa aziz is saying what everyone else is saying; the consequences of the lal masjid genocide was felt throughout the months to come after that in the form of increased suicide attacks and increased resistance. Such operations, as dumb as they seem, make people think the Govt is out to eradicate Islam, so in future these nutjob dictators, politicians need to be more careful in planning such things.

[bitter_reality]

Musharraf was totally wrong in how he handled this issue.

Lal mosque was not a war...but he made it look like a war , used choppers, phosphorous bombs, rockets etc etc. It was like shooting a humming bird with a cannon ball.
Brainless General just used the issue to get media attention and made it look as if he is fighting an islamic army.

Non sense, whatever problems we have in Pakistan today are gifts of General Busharaf

[Khehkeshan]

Re: Swat attacks are revenge by Lal Masjid students for military operation: Maulana A

Liar liar pants on fire. Swat attacks are to establish deen-e-taliban across all of pakistan and beyond as just stated by muslim khan in a TV interview.

[bitter_reality]

Re: Swat attacks are revenge by Lal Masjid students for military operation: Maulana A

Musharraf should be publicly hanged and sentenced to death by Supreme court of Pakistan for charges of treason and killing innocent civilians.

[Khehkeshan]

Re: Swat attacks are revenge by Lal Masjid students for military operation: Maulana A

And muslim khan and burqa aziz should be given nishan-e-haider for beheading, flogging, suiciding pakistanis.

[bitter_reality]

Liar liar pants on fire. Swat attacks are to establish deen-e-taliban across all of pakistan and beyond as just stated by muslim khan in a TV interview.

easy easy! Don't be hyper chill down and discuss the topic rather than calling others as liars etc

If I say someting to you in return...u would run to your mqm buddies and weep about havin me banned.

Grow up Mr Khekeshaan Siddiqui!

[Khehkeshan]

Re: Swat attacks are revenge by Lal Masjid students for military operation: Maulana A

Chaudry ji, I was not referring to you, but to burqa aziz the shemale mullah as a liar.

[GoldenAsif]

Laal Masjid was a huge blunder, and the senile retarded General handed the fiasco in the worst way, which kinda leads me to believe what an incompetent soldier Musharraf was. If you really want to defeat them, cut out their food/water supplies but no, he had to deploy all the soldiers, phosphorous bombs and other stuff to defeat them. In an interview he made a fool out of himself by saying 'joh andar rayein gey tu marey jaye gai, bahir ayo'. Apart from that they pretty much made an entire warzone out of the area but couldnt turn off the cell phone towers to prevent the people inside from issuing interviews. This guy burqa aziz is saying what everyone else is saying; the consequences of the lal masjid genocide was felt throughout the months to come after that in the form of increased suicide attacks and increased resistance. Such operations, as dumb as they seem, make people think the Govt is out to eradicate Islam, so in future these nutjob dictators, politicians need to be more careful in planning such things.

One could always disagree with the timing of the operation and the amount of force used in the end but I believe the operation was necessary to let these nutjobs the so-called students and radical elements else-where in the country know that they would not be allowed to impose their backward views on the civil society. The writ of the government had to be established here.

A mosque is not the place to keep arms and brainwash people. Mullahs should be preaching tolerance and peaceful Islam and not brainwashing young minds in the name of teaching Islam. Sadly that seems beyond most of them

Cutting off power, water and food supplies seems like a good idea but only in theory. The media would have circulated images of women and children falling sick or dying as a result of hunger, thirst, extreme heat, lack of hygiene etc. and people would have then shouted cruelty, karbela, karbela etc.

And military operation or no operation I believe some of these extremist nutcases would have still gone on to commit suicide bombings because of resentment at their failure to force the government to implement their narrow-minded version of sharia. This farce had to end. Perhaps we would not have seen so many suicide attacks but I disagree that there would have been no violence if we had dealt with this fiasco non-militarily.

It was a no-win situation for the government. The government should have dealt with this fiasco with an iron hand straightaway and not waited 6months and we won't have seen so many casualties

Perhaps the fundamental Q to ask is how these nutjobs got access to so many weapons in the end?

[Croquet]

Re: Swat attacks are revenge by Lal Masjid students for military operation: Maulana A

^ totally disagree, when a govt has no qualms about leaving the orphans of natural catastrophes in care of these 'nut job' , when govt officials themselves (ejaz ul haq) help them get the weapons in , and when the govt employs ulemas help to handle the issue t and then totally disregard their efforts, then the govt might as well should shove the iron fist where it can. It was handled in a barbaric way, over the top to high light musharraf's iron fist and it ended up causing resentment in average pakistani. innocent blood is easy to shed and harder to wash.

[iftikhar_7]

USA .. Bush and now Obama fighting the Holy Crusade!!!!

Hanging Muslim Leaders and keeping pet dogs like Musharraf ... and making head of the islamic states ......foolish persons as like Zardari

This situation is not acceptable ...................

easy easy! Don't be hyper chill down and discuss the topic rather than calling others as liars etc

If I say someting to you in return...u would run to your mqm buddies and weep about havin me banned.

Grow up Mr Khekeshaan Siddiqui!

[ehtasab]

@GoldenAsif

Lal Masjid Khateeb here condoning ‘revenge’ suicide bombings. Don’t know why he was let out by Zardari.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/13+situation+in+tribal+areas+linked+to+lal+masjid+operation–za-01

ISLAMABAD: The recently released Khateeb of Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) Maulana Abdul Aziz has said that whatever situation has emerged in the troubled areas of Swat, Buner and Dir was a reaction of a military operation conducted on the mosque in 2007.

Talking to Dawn he said most of the students of Lal Masjid who suffered due to the operation belonged to those areas and now they were taking their revenge.

So in essence he is admitting that he had foreign terrorists in Lal Masjid, govt should cancel his bail and put where he belongs.

[shami2k]

Musharraf was totally wrong in how he handled this issue.

I agree. He was totally wrong. If I was him, I would have blown up the whole place with F16s from sky and killed every single terrorists in lal temple (not masjid). If he had done that we would no be facing the terrorists suicidal jihadi animals now.

[Khehkeshan]

One could always disagree with the timing of the operation and the amount of force used in the end but I believe the operation was necessary to let these nutjobs the so-called students and radical elements else-where in the country know that they would not be allowed to impose their backward views on the civil society. The writ of the government had to be established here.

A mosque is not the place to keep arms and brainwash people. Mullahs should be preaching tolerance and peaceful Islam and not brainwashing young minds in the name of teaching Islam. Sadly that seems beyond most of them

Cutting off power, water and food supplies seems like a good idea but only in theory. The media would have circulated images of women and children falling sick or dying as a result of hunger, thirst, extreme heat, lack of hygiene etc. and people would have then shouted cruelty, karbela, karbela etc.

And military operation or no operation I believe some of these extremist nutcases would have still gone on to commit suicide bombings because of resentment over failure to force the government to implement their narrow-minded version of sharia. This farce had to end. Perhaps we would not have seen so many suicide attacks but I disagree that there would have been no violence if we had dealt with this fiasco non-militarily.

It was a no-win situation for the government. The government should have dealt with this fiasco with an iron hand straightaway and not waited 6months and we won't have seen so many casualties

Perhaps the fundamental Q to ask is how these nutjobs got access to so many weapons in the end?

Well said, cutting off water and food and just waiting would just prolong the siege since they likely had food reserves inside to last them a long time.

[Croquet]

Re: Swat attacks are revenge by Lal Masjid students for military operation: Maulana A

^but whats the death of 'some' people and an international embarrasment.

[koozager]

One could always disagree with the timing of the operation and the amount of force used in the end but I believe the operation was necessary to let these nutjobs the so-called students and radical elements else-where in the country know that they would not be allowed to impose their backward views on the civil society. The writ of the government had to be established here.

A mosque is not the place to keep arms and brainwash people. Mullahs should be preaching tolerance and peaceful Islam and not brainwashing young minds in the name of teaching Islam. Sadly that seems beyond most of them

Cutting off power, water and food supplies seems like a good idea but only in theory. The media would have circulated images of women and children falling sick or dying as a result of hunger, thirst, extreme heat, lack of hygiene etc. and people would have then shouted cruelty, karbela, karbela etc.

And military operation or no operation I believe some of these extremist nutcases would have still gone on to commit suicide bombings because of resentment over failure to force the government to implement their narrow-minded version of sharia. This farce had to end. Perhaps we would not have seen so many suicide attacks but I disagree that there would have been no violence if we had dealt with this fiasco non-militarily.

It was a no-win situation for the government. The government should have dealt with this fiasco with an iron hand straightaway and not waited 6months and we won't have seen so many casualties

Perhaps the fundamental Q to ask is how these nutjobs got access to so many weapons in the end?

An astute analysis.

I just dont understand why they would let the Burqa guy go after all the time and money and lives lost, and let him go back to the same place and set up shop again. The court could have at least told him to not address public meetings,or stay away from lal masjid or if he must go there not to make speeches.

As you can see in the picture with this article he still has a guy with a gun beside him.

[Spock]

Some of you are 'so' innocent and masoom. Ask yourself why Burqa wasnt charged for almost 2 years? When hes charged, a trial takes place and the truth comes out, and from Musharraf, Ijaz-ul-Haq down to the bottom, everyone will be exposed, and thats not what 'they' want at this stage when the deal in exchange for the NRO, Army is in place. It would open a new can of worms, and then 'official' investigations will become public, and that is going to be very ugly.

[Spock]

^but whats the death of 'some' people and an international embarrasment.

and not to mention incurring the wrath of the people of the country. pretty much everyone was against this operation. those that supported the operation, i.e. people like shiekh rasheed are history; for the first time the dude lost his seat in his home city, and he wasnt even 2nd.

[SID_NY]

I remember those days and nights very well as I was in Pakistan at that time. In fact, I was in the same area in islamabad right before the siege started and saw the later development in Karachi before I flew back.
As Musharraf had done countless mistakes while trying to run the country from his drawingroom without understanding how things work or should work as he wanted himself to be the puppet master while treating everyone else as the puppet. This one was his another blunder which caused heavy damage to the country but again, noone cared.
The tail line of the whole operation Lal Mosque was that, in the end of whole dialogues between those hiding inside the mosque and the Govt, even after the Moulana Aziz was captured and many days had passed after the siege, his brother Abdul Rashid Ghazi was ready to give up everything, and by everything , I really mean EVERYTHING on the cost that no operation is done. He was really put to wall and Govt had achieved all its objectives. At that time there was absolutely no need of any operation as it could only make the matter worse not better.
But that stupid Musharraf had only one thing in his mind that he has got all the force and he should use it no matter what. There were some efforts from Chaudhary brothers and the PM Shokat Aziz but Musharraf was really not ready to hear anything, as he never did in other circumstances as well.
The operation was done, Molana Abdul Rashid Ghazi and so many other people got dead and I've no doubt that there were many women and children among them. That followed up with a series of suicide bombings and attacks on police and other security agencies. And that were the aftereffects of Lal Mosque operation. However, I'm not ready to buy that Swat/Buneer has anything to do with Lal Masjid. Its a whole different story.

[Spock]

I remember those days and nights very well as I was in Pakistan at that time. In fact, I was in the same area in islamabad right before the siege started and saw the later development in Karachi before I flew back. As Musharraf had done countless mistakes while trying to run the country from his drawingroom without understanding how things work or should work as he wanted himself to be the puppet master while treating everyone else as the puppet. This one was his another blunder which caused heavy damage to the country but again, noone cared. The tail line of the whole operation Lal Mosque was that, in the end of whole dialogues between those hiding inside the mosque and the Govt, even after the Moulana Aziz was captured and many days had passed after the siege, his brother Abdul Rashid Ghazi was ready to give up everything, and by everything , I really mean EVERYTHING on the cost that no operation is done. He was really put to wall and Govt had achieved all its objectives. At that time there was absolutely no need of any operation as it could only make the matter worse not better. But that stupid Musharraf had only one thing in his mind that he has got all the force and he should use it no matter what. There were some efforts from Chaudhary brothers and the PM Shokat Aziz but Musharraf was really not ready to hear anything, as he never did in other circumstances as well. The operation was done, Molana Abdul Rashid Ghazi and so many other people got dead and I've no doubt that there were many women and children among them. That followed up with a series of suicide bombings and attacks on police and other security agencies. And that were the aftereffects of Lal Mosque operation. However, I'm not ready to buy that Swat/Buneer has anything to do with Lal Masjid. Its a whole different story.

Shaukat Aziz, according to Chaudhry Shujaat was more interested in taking his wife out to Melody Market Islamabad for kulfi at the time when he was approached to peacefully resolve this issue. This just shows the professionalism and commitment of the Musharraf regime.