PAKISTAN: Pakistani forces secure last parts of rebel mosque as protesters take to streets

Record ID: 859308

  • Title: PAKISTAN: Pakistani forces secure last parts of rebel mosque as protesters take to streets
  • Date: 12th July 2007
  • Summary: NEWSPAPER
  • Embargoed: 27th July 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan
  • City:
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics:
  • Reuters ID: LVAT36B0HWH5ZLM76OIF4G7YAFL
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  • Story Text: As Pakistani forces work on securing the Red Mosque following an assault that killed a rebel cleric and more than 70 supporters, many questions remain unanswered, including the final death toll and whether any women or children had been killed at the mosque. Meanwhile, hundreds of Islamists took to streets of Pakistan's biggest city of Karachi to protest the operation.

    Pakistani security forces secured a mosque and school complex in Islamabad on Wednesday (July 11), snuffing out the last pockets of resistance a day after an assault that killed a rebel cleric and more than 70 supporters.
    "A short while back there was firing going on in which some people did suffer casualties from our side, and also from the side of the militants," said military spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad at a news briefing.
    Hardline cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi died in a hail of bullets on Tuesday (July 10).
    Nine members of the security forces were also killed and another 29 wounded in "Operation Silence", the codename for the assault carried out by 164 commandos.
    After the complex was secured, soldiers began to comb the debris and Arshad said they had found 73 bodies.
    The military had earlier estimated more than 50 militants had been killed.
    Heavy casualties, especially among women and children who were religious students based at the compound would be bad for U.S.-ally President Pervez Musharraf in the run-up to elections due late this year, when he will seek a second five-year term.
    No one knew how many people were in the complex when the assault began. More than 1,200 people left during a week-long standoff after clashes erupted on July 3.
    Many Pakistanis berated Musharraf for not clamping down sooner on the students who abducted policemen and kidnapped women they accused of being prostitutes. Newspapers also said the government should have acted sooner but in the end had no choice but to use force.
    Hundreds of Islamists took to streets of Pakistan's biggest city of Karachi to protest the operation.
    Waving party flags and holding banners, more than 300 activists and supporters of the six Islamist Parities Alliance marched through the streets.
    The protest leaders while addressing crowd, demanded the government release those detained during mosque raid.
    Protesters also held prayers for the 'martyrs' of Red Mosque.
    "There has been heavy loss of life in yesterday's military action in Islamabad. No accurate number of casualties is known so far. People are grieved and disturbed. Our enemy is happy. Leading U.S. newspapers and U.S. officials have appreciated it. But obviously no Muslim is happy about this," said Professor Ghafoor Ahmad, a protest leader.
    Similar protests were also held in the capital Islamabad and Northwestern city of Peshawar.
    Musharraf attended the funeral service of nine of the soldiers killed in the assault.
    Later, he visited the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Rawalpindi to meet the soldiers wounded during the military operation at Lal Masjid.
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