Militants From Radical Mosque Charge Security Forces

Militants From Radical Mosque Charge Security Forces

www.chron.com

The battle marked a major escalation in a standoff at the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, whose clerics have challenged the military-led government by mounting a vigilante anti-vice campaign in Islamabad.

Trouble began when student followers of the mosque, including young men with guns and dozens of women wearing black burqas, rushed toward a nearby police checkpoint early Tuesday afternoon.

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From reading the article this sounds like one big mess. Shots were fired in both directions. A building was set on fire. The part about the public address speaker system telling people to get into position to follow through on suicide bombings is what really turned my stomach. Here is a mosque of the religion of peace with advanced weapons and training there people to be suicide bombers, does any one else see a problem with this?

www.chron.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Originally posted by RedGolem


From reading the article this sounds like one big mess. Shots were fired in both directions. A building was set on fire. The part about the public address speaker system telling people to get into position to follow through on suicide bombings is what really turned my stomach. Here is a mosque of the religion of peace with advanced weapons and training there people to be suicide bombers, does any one else see a problem with this?

www.chron.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

The word problem....try something bigger man. This is however a perfect example of people twisting religion for their own causes. Do not blame religion, blame the people who use it wrong. This actually sounds alot like the birth of the Taliban after the soviets left afghanistan. religious students...guns...anyone else see the resemblance?

Regards,
Maestro

Hi Red,

You may not realize it, but you have stumbled upon a story that goes a lot deeper than this one incident.

Here is a little taste of the depth of the issue in random order.

TNSM
The TNSM is a militant Wahabi outfit whose primary objective is the imposition of Sharia in Pakistan.

The outfit has a large number of ex-servicemen, including many retired Commissioned Officers, within its ranks. It has substantial support in Malakand and Bajaur and includes activists that have fought in Afghanistan at some time during the past 25 years.

the TNSM is reported to have sent thousands of armed cadres to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban militia. News reports of October 27, 2001, from Bajaur indicated that approximately 10,000 TNSM cadres crossed the Pakistan-Afghan border.

All roads lead to the red mosque

All these pro-Taliban/al-Qaeda zones on the Afghan border have connections with the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad, run by outspoken brothers Maulana Abdul Aziz and Ghazi Abdul Rasheed.

The Pakistani establishment believes Aziz is in fact the new leader of all the Taliban and al-Qaeda assets spreading through northwestern Pakistan,

Lal Masjid has had numerous high-profile run-ins and standoffs with the government, but Islamabad has never risked an outright confrontation, given the power and influence of the brothers and their standing in the jihadist world.

Britain bans two more Islamist groups

Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi is active in tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The group "regularly attacks coalition and Afghan government forces in Afghanistan and provides direct support to al-Qaida and the Taliban", according to the draft order.

TNSM'S JIHADI SHADOW OVER LONDON

There has since then been a significant resurgence in the activities of the TNSM in the Malakand Division of the NWFP and in the Bajaur Agency of the FATA. It has been organising pro-Taliban activities

Many believe that if Osama bin Laden is alive, he would most probably be in the Chitral area of the Malakand region. Of all the Pashtuns of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, bin Laden reportedly trusts those of Malakand the most.

the Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) have pledged before their supporters to target VIPs in Pakistan and US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. The bombed Bajaur madrasa was run by the TNSM and is thought to have been used as a training camp for militants. British and US diplomats and nationals are also possible targets of the militants.

~a significant fact that has emerged out of the so-called fertiliser bomb case in the UK has not received the attention it deserved. That is the training of the terrorists involved in this plot in a training camp in Malakand. The fact that these persons went to or were directed to Malakand for training strongly indicates a role for the TNSM in jihadi terrorism in the UK.

Musharraf dithers on action against militant clerics
ISLAMABAD, June 30 (Pajhwok Afghan News): President Gen Pervez Musharraf has admitted suicide bombers, linked to al-Qaeda and the outlawed Jaish-i-Muhammad group, are holed up in a mosque and a seminary bang in the heart of this capital city.

However, the general tended to dawdle with regard to an operation against the militants challenging his government's writ. A raid on the mosque or the religious school adjacent to it would cause heavy casualties on both sides, he said on Friday.

Foreign terrorists hiding in Pakistan's tribal badlands were preparing attacks on targets in the West, said the president

More info

There is a lot more background, but I leave it to others to bring the info forward.

Originally posted by maestro46


The word problem....try something bigger man. This is however a perfect example of people twisting religion for their own causes. Do not blame religion, blame the people who use it wrong.

Maestro,
You are right I should not put any blame on the religion. I sometimes make things sounds that way but I know it is wrong. It does seem like that is the religion where megalomaniacs bent on world domination and genocide end up though.

Originally posted by makeitso

You may not realize it, but you have stumbled upon a story that goes a lot deeper than this one incident.

Makeisto,
That is a lot of good information that you posted thank you.
I did not go to all the links, but you might want to compile all of tha information to a single thread. I bet it would draw a lot of response and good comments.

Things got worse again today. Here is what I found on it.

A months-long standoff between the Pakistani government and Islamic militants holed up in a mosque in the heart of the capital erupted in violence on Tuesday. The fierce clashes between security forces and students left at least nine people dead and scores wounded.

The fighting exposed the normally placid capital to the wider divisions between moderates and militants in Pakistan, shattering the notion that the seat of government was immune from extremism.

sorce

By now you are probably already aware that people have now surrendered by the hundreds.

Did you know they caught one of the leaders trying to sneak in womens cloths?

Mosque leader caught in escape attempt

“We caught Abdul Aziz when he was trying to escape the mosque clad in a burqa,” ~. "He was wearing a burqa that also covered his eyes,” ~.

"The rest of the girls looked like girls but he was taller and had a pot belly.”

"He did not offer any resistance.

Location Map


[edit on 7/4/07 by makeitso]

Things in Pakistan are about to explode between those who favor an Iranian style Islamic fundamentalist republic and those who favor a secularist somewhat Western friendly dictatorship.

Personally I would rather Musharraff (as evil as he is) only because he at least makes an attempt to stop the radicals. However, if he really cared he would send the Pakistani Army into Waziristan or allow us to send the Delta boys in there.

BTW: did anyone see the pics of the shootout? The "Islamic fighters" look like 12 year old kids. Its really tragic how far some people will take things; they care nothing about peace battling the police and all they want is to kill kill kill. I mean they had teenage boy suicide squads and Female groups armed with bamboo sticks storm into a house and "arrest" the ladies living there on charges of "prostitution" because they refused to wear burkhas from head to toe.





[edit on 4-7-2007 by ChrisF231]

This kind of event is only going to speed up the civil war that everyone knows Pakistan is heading for, and that the west as been really hoping would just go away.

Originally posted by makeitso
By now you are probably already aware that people have now surrendered by the hundreds.

makeitso
Thanks for that update.
I had not heard but now I have.
things still sound bad there but maby this is a step in the right direction

Originally posted by ChrisF231
Things in Pakistan are about to explode between those who favor an Iranian style Islamic fundamentalist republic and those who favor a secularist somewhat Western friendly dictatorship.



BTW: did anyone see the pics of the shootout? The "Islamic fighters" look like 12 year old kids.

Chrisf
I fear you are right about things being ready to explode. It is very sad. The fighters being twelve year olds, if that's right, that's just sickening. Kinds of shows the kind of people that are doing that. I hope the people them selves will come to realize this and decide which is better for the nation.

Originally posted by RedGolem

Originally posted by ChrisF231
Things in Pakistan are about to explode between those who favor an Iranian style Islamic fundamentalist republic and those who favor a secularist somewhat Western friendly dictatorship.



BTW: did anyone see the pics of the shootout? The "Islamic fighters" look like 12 year old kids.

Chrisf
I fear you are right about things being ready to explode. It is very sad. The fighters being twelve year olds, if that's right, that's just sickening. Kinds of shows the kind of people that are doing that. I hope the people them selves will come to realize this and decide which is better for the nation.

I wouldent put it past them considering it A) took place at a Madrassa which is the term used for Islamic fundamentalist schools.We have them here in the US as well. And dont forget that these are the same sickos that dress their kids up in fake suicide bomb belts and have them parade around with little mini toy AKs holding signs like "Death to Israel and America"

Chrisf
That may not be exactly the terms I would have used, but the point you got across is right. Thanks for the information again.

I also found this this morning.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A radical cleric arrested while fleeing his government-besieged mosque in a woman's burqa and high heels said Thursday that the nearly 1,000 followers still inside should flee or surrender.

The comments by Maulana Abdul Aziz raised hopes that the standoff could end without further bloodshed, but his brother remained inside the mosque with followers and said there was no reason to surrender.

There the cleric that was caught in the burqa is saying the people inside should either flee or surrender. That is something that I did not recall hearing before. Don't know how relevant it will turn out to be.

And yet again here is the latest on the favorite radical mosque.

Heavy gunfire and explosions have rocked a besieged mosque in Pakistan after the government rejected a conditional surrender offer by the mosque's deputy leader and accused him of using women and children as human shields.

sorce

For any one has been following this story, hear is what may be the end to it.

July 10, 2007 - Just before dawn on Tuesday, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf gave the order for his commandos to attack the radical Red Mosque that his troops had surrounded for eight days in the capital, Islamabad. Firing automatic weapons, machine guns and stun grenades Pakistani commandos burst through wide holes that had been blasted in the mosque's outer wall and its bullet-pocked red façade. Holed up inside were the mosque's hardline deputy leader Maulana Abdul Rasheed Ghazi and more than 100 determined and well-armed militants who had refused days of offers to surrender or face the consequences.

newsweek