ISLAMABAD, 7 April 2007 — The prayer leader of an Islamabad mosque said yesterday he had set up a Taleban-style court and pledged “tens of thousands” of suicide attacks if the government tried to shut it down.

The declaration by Abdul Aziz comes a week after students of a madrasa affiliated to the capital’s Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, kidnapped an alleged brothel owner and mounted morality patrols targeting music and DVD shops.

“I announce the setting up of a Shariah court from today. I hereby declare the start of Islamic law from this mosque,” Aziz told thousands of chanting supporters.

President Pervez Musharraf warned the hard-liners that he would not tolerate anyone taking the law into their own hands.

Addressing a convention of health workers barely a kilometer from the mosque, Musharraf said, “We will not allow lawlessness in the name of Islam. They should not take the law into their own hands; this will create lawlessness in the country. We cannot allow their activities to grow and influence the society. I will not allow this.”

Musharraf said the government has been demonstrating restraint to resolve the situation peacefully but it would not hesitate to act if needed.

The court would consist of 10 muftis, Aziz said. He warned the government not to try to storm the mosque, where hundreds of burqa-clad women and boy students waving bamboo sticks have regularly mounted brazen shows of defiance.

“If this (storming the mosque) is the government’s last option, then our last option can be suicide attacks. We have tens of thousands of people who can shake the government with suicide attacks,” he said.

As supporters shouted slogans, Aziz also gave the government a one-month deadline to close what he called brothels, gambling dens and secret alcohol outlets “or our own students will complete the task.” Cheering students from the madrasa affiliated to the mosque later torched thousands of Indian and Pakistani movie DVDs handed over by a shop owner from a nearby market.

Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said the prayer leader had no credibility and insisted that law and order would be maintained. Pathan vendors of DVD players and TV sets outside Aabpara and Melody markets were seen packing their commodities and moving out of the capital to avoid being attacked by madrasa students.