ISLAMABAD, 4 June 2007 — Taleban commander Haji Umar warned the Pakistani government yesterday that it would invite direct retaliation against any “action” against Islamabad’s Red Mosque.
“We are in touch with Maulana Abdul Aziz of the Red Mosque and if the government acted against the mosque’s religious training facility we will hit back,” Umar told reporters by telephone. The leaders of the mosque, constructed in 1965, deny charges that they teach militant ideology and say they are simply trying to implement the Shariah law in Pakistan.
Abdul Aziz, 46, told Arab News yesterday that the mosque’s mission is to fight for “the supremacy of Islam and enforcement of the Shariah.” “In our endeavor to achieve our goals, we do have complete support of the Taleban,” Abdul Aziz admitted.
In a statement during his visit to Islamabad on Saturday evening, Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais, the imam of the Grand Mosque in Makkah, expressed his shock at the comments.
“Mosques should not become centers of mischief,” he said. He expressed the hope that the effects of Abdul Aziz’s comments “would not spill over to other parts of the country.”
The imam of Islam’s holiest mosque also called for a peaceful end to a standoff between the students of Jamia Hafsa adjoining the Red Mosque and the government and urged Red Mosque administrators to forge unity among Muslims and foil designs of the enemies of Islam and Pakistan.
Pakistani authorities meanwhile said they were investigating allegations that verses of the Qur’an had been desecrated at a nursing school in the capital.
The incident came to light on Friday when dozens of female students of Jamia Hafsa stormed the nursing hostel saying they had received complaints from Muslim students.
“We are holding an inquiry into the incident,” deputy administrator of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences Raja Amjad Mehmood said.
He said four people including the acting principal and students had been suspended until the report of an inquiry was submitted. “The complaints came from students that unidentified people had scribbled lines over the verses of the Holy Qur’an which were pasted on a wall in their hostel,” Mehmood said.
— Additional input from agencies
