Lal Masjid
By Samuel Baid
In Pakistan’s federal capital Islamabad stands about a four-decade old mosque that preaches against the state, its democracy and constitution and holds its establishment and judiciary in terror.
It is Lal Masjid or Red mosque which came on the scène in the mid – 1980s when then military dictator Gen. Ziaul Haq encouraged establishment of anti-Shia organizations to prove his Sunni fundamentalism and keep close to Al-Qaeda ideology. He helped build the mosque. He had also blessed the formation of Sipah-e-Sahaba which made killing its Shia brethren an Islamic duty.
Lal Masjid, however, did not show much anti-Shia enthusiasm: it, instead, turned to be an anti-State centre. Its Khatib Maulana Abdul Aziz one morning claimed that Prophet Mohammed told him in his dream that he should revolt and implement Sharia in Pakistan on his own. Aziz, who has been described as the front man of Al-Qaeda’s policy of Islamic vigilantism, set out to cleanse the society in the federal capital Islamabad without bothering about Pakistan’s very special relations with China.
In 2007 students of Lal Masjid, including girls in burqa, raided a massage parlor run by Chinese women in Islamabad’s posh area. They forcibly took away with them seven Chinese women and three guards of massage parlor to be kept as hostages in the girl’s madarsa Jamia Hafza in the Lal Masjid. They also raided other establishments in the capital which they thought militated against sharia.
China was furious. It is said it was on China’s instance that Army Chief-cum-President Gen. Pervez Musharraf willy-nilly acted against the Lal Masjid fearing the consequences.
While Maulana Abdul Aziz regaled himself with success stories of his students’ vigilantism, Gen. Musharraf ordered commando action called Operation Silence against the Mosque in June 2007. The dreaming Maulana tried to escape in a burqa and 6000 boys and girls, all students of the Mosque’s madarsas surrendered to the Army.
About 100 students were killed who mainly came from Pakistan’s tribal areas and thus creating hostility towards the federal government.
Maulana Aziz, while running away in a burqa from the Lal Masjid when the Army launched Operation Silence, was removed from the post of Khatib (prayer leader) but he has stuck there as a leech. His strength lies in his glib tongue against Pakistan democracy and its constitution. He makes it a point to go against the majority public opinion in Pakistan. For example, in December 2014 when the entire country, including its Islamists were condemning the killing of 140 students of Peshawar Public School by the Tehrik-i-Taliban, Pakistan (TTP) gunmen, Maulana Aziz refused to condemn it. The TTP has close relations with Lal Masjid.
When the newly emerged Islamic state of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) began havoc in Iraq and announced the revival of Khilafat and named the Khalifa, Lal Masjid’s girls’ madarsa Jamia Hafza announced its acceptance of the Khalifa. Jamia Hafza is headed by Aziz’s wife Umme Hassan who is no less fearless fanatic and militant than her husband.
Aziz has been removed a number of times from the post of Khatib, but he would not go. His resistance has caused four incidents of violence in the past six months. On June 21 things became serious when the police came to arrest him. He snatched an AK-47 from a policeman and began firing on the policeman while walking into the shelter of his mosque. A large number of people had collected who made Aziz’s escape into the mosque easy. He was also helped by the girls of Jamia Hafza who came out with stick and beat up the policemen.
It said that Gen. Musharraf was forced by China to take action against Lal Masjid. He could not disobey. But Musharraf did not have peaceful sleep after that. The Supreme Court insisted that the government pay full compensation to Lal Masjid for the damages caused by China ordered Operation Silence.
Pakistan has many cradles of terrorism. Lal Masjid is one of them. The TTP owes its existence to Lal Masjid. This Masjid supports some sectarian terrorist organizations like the Jaish-e-Mohammad and it certainly has links with Daesh or ISIS.