The tense standoff between the authorities in Islamabad and the armed occupants of the capital’s Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) may still end in unnecessary bloodshed. The latest batch of students who have fled the building and been interrogated by Pakistani law officers, warn that the hard core of a few hundred who remain are intent upon sacrificing themselves. Those who surrendered did however also contradict claims that the leaders had organized teams of suicide bombers. So far, despite the 19 deaths in exchanges of fire between paramilitaries and the heavily-armed occupants of the mosque, the government of President Pervez Musharraf has shown some caution and restraint. Food, water and power have been cut off to the mosque complex and the area is surrounded. Though the surrender yesterday of several hundred more students may help the radicals to conserve whatever food and water supplies they have, it seems clear that the authorities are content to play a waiting game. The hope is obviously that hunger and discomfort will persuade the occupants to negotiate. At the moment they are refusing to surrender unless the authorities withdraw from around the mosque, which looks like no surrender at all. For their part the government is insisting that the students and teachers still in the mosque must give up their weapons and hand themselves over. Respected religious leaders have gone into the mosque complex to try and persuade the occupants to abandon their resistance.
Among most of the public in the Pakistani capital, there seems to be general relief that something is at last being done about the radicals in the Lal Masjid, who have been behaving in an increasingly lawless and intolerant fashion. In support of their demand for the introduction of Shariah law, they have been sending out armed gangs of supporters to kidnap or punish anyone who they think does not conform to their beliefs. Many locals wish the authorities had acted sooner against such lawlessness. It has indeed long seemed that the leadership of the Lal Masjid was challenging the government and becoming ever bolder when that challenge was ignored and no firm action was taken against them. The occupants of the mosque have however lost face with the capture of their leader, disguised in a burqa as a woman and trying to flee the complex with a group of women. Maulana Abdul Aziz was reportedly identified by his greater height and large stomach. That the leader who had inspired his followers to embark upon this dangerous standoff should himself be trying to escape the result, is not commendable. Perhaps he may be persuaded to advise the hard core remaining inside to end the confrontation.
If Musharraf can end the Lal Masjid siege without further bloodshed, he will be hoping that it may boost his popularity, damaged by his contested firing of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry and recent clampdown on critical broadcast media in recent months. It may indeed be a miscalculated assessment of the government’s weakness that prompted the Red Mosque leadership to provoke such a serious challenge in the first place.
