[NYTr] Militants Re-take Red Mosque; Musharraf Govt Increasingly Shakey

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AFP via Channeline News - Jul 27, 2007
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/290790/1/.html

Suicide blast kills 13 near Pakistan's Red Mosque

Unrest as Pakistan's Red Mosque reopens for prayers

ISLAMABAD: A suicide bomber blew himself up among a group of Pakistani
policemen during clashes at Islamabad's Red Mosque Friday, killing at
least 13 people, most of them police, officials said.

The blast came after hundreds of radical students briefly occupied the
mosque in the heart of the capital after its official reopening, which
followed an army operation there earlier this month in which more than
100 people died.

Policemen's caps and shoes lay alongside body parts at the scene of the
blast in one of the leafy city's busiest bazaars, where police were
resting after firing tear gas at stone-throwing protesters, an AFP
correspondent said.

The bombing and the unrest at the mosque will pile further pressure on
President Pervez Musharraf, who earlier Friday bristled at repeated US
threats of a possible American strike against militants in Pakistan's
tribal areas.

The militry ruler has pledged to crush extremism in the South Asian
nation.

Islamabad administration chief Khalid Pervez said 13 people were killed
in the blast, including seven policemen, and another 50 people have
been wounded.

"We have found a severed head from the blast site. Most probably it was
a suicide attack but a final report is awaited," Pervez told reporters.

A senior security official said it was confirmed as a suicide attack.

"A man detonated explosives strapped to his body among two rows of
Punjab police constabulary members who were there on duty because of
the unrest at the Red Mosque," the official told AFP on condition of
anonymity.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack but it comes amid a wave
of violence that has killed more than 200 people in the wake of the
week-long siege and subsequent storming of the hard-line mosque between
July 3 and 11.

"The incident was linked to the Red Mosque situation," Interior
Secretary Kamal Shah said. He added that the mosque had now been
cleared of protesters and would remain closed until the security
situation improves.

"I saw bodies flying through the air, some were without legs and some
were without arms. I put as many as I could into ambulances," policeman
Mukhtar Ahmad said at the scene, outside a popular restaurant in the
Aabpara market.

Unrest erupted at the Red Mosque early in the day when hundreds of
radical students chased out a government-picked religious elder who was
meant to lead the first Friday prayers there since the army raid two
weeks ago.

"I was told everything would be peaceful. I was never interested in
taking up this job and after today I will never do it," prayer leader
Mohammad Ashfaq Ashfaq told AFP as he left with a police escort.

Protesters using rollers daubed red paint over the walls, which had
been changed to a peach colour during government renovations. The
unarmed demonstrators flew black jihad flags with crossed swords from
the minarets.

Hardliners then hurled rocks at armoured police vehicles and officers
in riot gear, injuring two policemen, officials said. Police fired tear
gas at the demonstrators and arrested six people.

The blast happened shortly after the clash.

The students had demanded the return of the mosque's chief cleric,
Abdul Aziz, who was caught trying to flee the compound in a woman's
burqa during the siege and is now in jail awaiting trial on terror
charges.

They chanted "Musharraf is a dog, death to the Musharraf government,"
adding that the blood of the mosque's rebel leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi,
who died in the assault, would "bring an Islamic revolution."

The government cracked down on the mosque after it led a Taliban-style
vigilante campaign, with the goal of imposing Sharia law, which
climaxed with the abduction of seven citizens from China, Pakistan's
closest ally.

Religious Affairs Minister Ijaz-ul Haq reopened the complex -- renamed
the Central Mosque -- on Thursday, with bullet holes from the bitter
fighting plastered over by workmen and damaged fans and lighting all
repaired.

Authorities earlier this week razed an Islamic girls' school and some
staff quarters within the mosque compound that had been declared
dangerous after the clashes. - AFP/yy/ac 

                              ***

AFP via Yahoo - Jul 27, 2007
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20070727/twl-pakistan-religion-unrest-mosque-4bdc673.html


Islamic hardliners retake Pakistan's Red Mosque

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - - Hundreds of Islamists occupied Pakistan's Red
Mosque Friday, painting the walls their original colour and clashing
with police as the official reopening after an army assault descended
into chaos.

Hardliners at the Islamabad complex hurled rocks at armoured police
vehicles and officers in riot gear, injuring two policemen, officials
said. Police fired teargas at the mostly bearded demonstrators and
arrested six people.

Around a dozen people using rollers daubed red paint over the walls,
which had been changed to a peach colour during government renovations.
The unarmed demonstrators flew black jihadi flags with crossed swords
from the minarets.

Unrest erupted when radical students chased out a government-picked
Islamic elder who was meant to lead the first Friday prayers at the
mosque since the military operation two weeks ago, in which more than
100 people died.

The students demanded the return of the mosque's chief cleric, Abdul
Aziz, who was caught trying to flee the compound in a woman's burqa
during the siege and is now in jail awaiting trial on terror charges.

They chanted "Musharraf is a dog, death to the Musharraf government",
adding that the blood of the mosque's rebel leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi,
who died in the assault, would "bring an Islamic revolution."

"It is true that rowdy students have overtaken the mosque, they are not
letting the prayers be held," a senior security official told AFP on
condition of anonymity.

The protests will raise questions about whether the government reopened
the Red Mosque too soon, with tensions still running high in Pakistan
after the raid amid a wave of apparent revenge attacks by militants.

Friday's violence comes despite pledges from President Pervez Musharraf
to crush extremism in Pakistan following the week-long siege and
subsequent storming of the mosque between July 3 and 11.

The government cracked down on the mosque after it led a Taliban-style
vigilante campaign, with the goal of imposing Sharia law, which
climaxed with the abduction of seven citizens from China, Pakistan's
closest ally.

Religious Affairs Minister Ijaz-ul Haq reopened the complex -- renamed
the Central Mosque -- on Thursday, with bullet holes from the bitter
fighting plastered over by workmen and damaged fans and lighting all
repaired.

But despite tight security, the students on Friday stopped prayer
leader Imam Mohammad Ashfaq taking up his position at the mosque's
pulpit and used the microphone to deliver their own furious speeches
against the government raid.

"I was told everything would be peaceful. I was never interested in
taking up this job and after today I will never do it," Ashfaq told AFP
as he left with a police escort.

The protesters also threw shoes at cameramen and reporters covering the
event.

"We worked day and night to open the mosque for people to offer prayers
but some people, mainly former students, are trying to create
mischief," interior ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema told AFP.

Authorities earlier this week razed an Islamic girls' school and some
staff quarters within the mosque compound that had been declared
dangerous after the clashes.

The madrassa was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting and was
where Ghazi was shot dead by government commandos on July 10. He had
expressed hopes that his death would spark an Islamic revolution.

Around 10 burqa-clad girl students from the madrassa turned up at the
mosque on Friday, saying that the government had lied about the
official death toll from the military operation.

The Red Mosque raid touched off a wave of revenge suicide attacks and
other militant strikes which have killed more than 200 people and piled
pressure on military leader Musharraf.

                             ***

Times of India - Jul 27, 2007
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Pakistan/Musharraf_advised_by_his_close_military_aides_to_quit_Report/rssarticleshow/2238053.cms

Musharraf advised by his close military aides to quit: Report

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has been advised by his
top military commanders to quit in the wake of the restoration of Chief
Justice Iftikhar M Chaudhry, a daily reported on Friday.

During his six-day long discussions with his top military aides in
Rawalpindi after the reinstatement of the Chief Justice by the Supreme
Court, Musharraf was advised to seek an "honourable exit", 'The News'
quoted unnamed sources as saying here.

Though the President did not react to the suggestions, the sources said
he might make a decision after his return from an official tour of
Saudi Arabia where he's likely to raise this issue with the Saudis in a
bid to find "a way out of the political mess without any loss of face".

There was a consensus in the presidential camp during the discussions
that Musharraf was in such a situation that even former Prime Minister
Benazir Bhutto's political support could not bail him out, the sources
said. "Musharraf is now at the dead end of the tunnel." In fact, the
Supreme Court judgement has come as a major shock for Musharraf,
according to the sources.

"The ball is now in the court of the Chief Justice who himself will not
be able bail him out because of the high expectations people have
developed after his restoration as the top judge." However, while
talking to the daily, President's spokesperson General Rashid Qureshi
has denied having any knowledge of any such advice being given to
Musharraf by his close military aides. He termed as "speculation" the
reports that the President was advised to quit.

                               ***


The Telegraph (India) - Jul 28, 2007
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Pakistan/Musharraf_advised_by_his_close_military_aides_to_quit_Report/rssarticleshow/2238053.cms

Pervez, Benazir in secret meet

Islamabad, July 27 (Reuters): Speculation intensified today that
Pakistan’s embattled President Pervez Musharraf and former Premier
Benazir Bhutto will form a power-sharing pact, as television channels
reported they met secretly in Abu Dhabi.

Musharraf flew to the Gulf state earlier in the day, and was expected
to return on Sunday, after also visiting Saudi Arabia.

Three television channels — Geo News, Aaj TV and Dawn News — said
Bhutto had also gone there from London and the two met secretly, but
state-run Pakistan Television said officials had denied the reports.

Musharraf’s spokesman former general Rashid Qureshi scoffed at the
reports, while Wajid Shamsul Hasan, a close aide to Bhutto in London,
said he was unaware of any meeting.

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim
League, was more forthcoming when speaking to Aaj.

“I don’t know about the meeting, but this issue was discussed when we
met the President the day before yesterday and we said doors should not
be closed for such contacts,” Hussain said.

US ally Musharraf is going through the weakest period of his eight-year
rule, and a supreme court decision last week to reinstate a chief
justice he had spent four months trying to sack raised questions about
his ability to secure a second five-year term with elections due by the
turn of the year.

The National Assembly is scheduled to be dissolved in November, and
elections should be held in December or January.

Musharraf had wanted to secure his own re-election from the outgoing
Assembly, but the supreme court decision last week made it more likely
constitutional challenges to his plan would succeed.

An alliance with two-time Premier Bhutto could be his last chance,
analysts say, unless he goes back on his word not to declare a state of
emergency.

Musharraf has had no public engagements, and made no television
appearances in the wake of the court decision and rumours have
inevitably filled the void left by his silence.

Today one newspaper, The News, ran a front-page story, citing anonymous
sources, saying that Musharraf’s fellow generals had advised him to
step down.

A day earlier two papers, Dawn and The Nation, reported Prime Minister
Shaukat Aziz was under pressure to be the fall guy over the chief
justice fiasco. For days there have been expectations heads would roll,
the law minister and attorney-general among them. But none have.

Instead a sense of Musharraf's isolation grew, fuelling feverish
speculation the military democracy Pakistan had lived under since a
1999 coup was coming to an end.