Militants in new ‘Red Mosque’ threaten suicide attacks

Masked militants hold guns as they seize a historic shrine in Lakaro village in the lawless Mohmand tribal region bordering Afghanistan, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) northwest of Peshawar, July 31, 2007. At the weekend, dozens of heavily armed masked militants seized a shrine and mosque in Mohmand tribal region and re-named the mosque after the Lal Masjid. The government has called a jirga or traditional council of tribal elders to persuade the militants to vacate the compound. REUTERS/Ali Imam (PAKISTAN)


Militants in new ‘Red Mosque’ threaten suicide attacks

PAKISTAN: Pro-Taliban militants who seized a shrine and named it after Pakistan’s radical Red Mosque said Monday they would retaliatate with suicide bombings if troops tried to flush them out.
Around 150 armed masked men late Saturday took control of Turangzai Sahib Mosque in a village in lawless Mohmand tribal district, some 60 kilometres (37 miles) northwest of Peshawar.
The militants renamed it the Red Mosque, referring to the radical mosque in the Pakistan capital where more than 100 people died in clashes between security forces and militants early this month.
A group of journalists who visited the tribal district’s Lakaro village saw some 50 masked men wearing camouflage jackets and armed with rocket launchers and assault rifles occupying the mosque’s ground floor.
More militants were holed up on the first floor of the building.
“We are ready to sacrifice our lives for the mission of Abdur Rashid Ghazi”, a militant leader, who identified himself as Umar Khalid, told reporters.
He was referring to the Red Mosque’s firebrand cleric who died when troops launched their assault this month.
Khalid claimed he had the support of some 3,000 tribesmen from Mohmand district which borders Afghanistan’s volatile Kunar and Ningarhar provinces.
“Local tribesmen are financing our program to implement Sharia in the region,” he said, adding that he and his men were ready to wage jihad (holy war) against the United States and its allies.
Asked what he would do if Pakistani troops launched an operation to take back the mosque, he said: “Our people will resist, they will consider every option, including suicide bombings.”
He said militants seized the mosque because it was adjacent to the shrine of Haji Turangzai Sahib, a known Pashtun warrior who fought against British rulers in the early 1900s.
Following heavy fighting between troops and militants at Islamabad’s Red Mosque earlier this month, the badly-damaged building was repaired and the adjoining girls’ religious school called Jamia Hafsa demolished.
It was formally reopened for traditional prayers on Friday, but protests and a nearby suicide bombing that killed 14 people soon forced its closure.
The government originally cracked down on the Red Mosque after it led a Taliban-style vigilante campaign for Sharia law that climaxed with the abduction in Islamabad of seven Chinese nationals.
Pro-Taliban militants still hold sway in the rugged Pakistani tribal areas bordering Afghanistan despite the deployment of more than 90,000 troops.
Local officials convened a meeting of tribal elders to discuss the seizure of the mosque but have failed so far to resolve the issue.
Lakaro, Tuesday, AFP




Pak militants occupying shrine in tribal area refuse to vacate it

Islamabad, Aug 01: More than 150 armed pro-Taliban militants occupying a famous shrine in Pakistan's tribal belt - which they renamed as Lal Masjid - have refused to vacate it despite an ultimatum by the local council of elders.
Efforts of the local council of tribal elders to get the hooded militants lift their four-day siege of the Haji Sahib Turangzai Shrine in Mohmand agency near Afghan border have failed.
The shrine was built in the memory of Turangzai, the famous Pushtoon leader who fought against the British in the 18th century.
"The mosque and madrassa is the house of god and nobody can expel us," the militants' leader Umar Khalid told reporters after an eight-member Saafi tribe Jirga tried to negotiate with the local Taliban to resolve the issue peacefully.
The militants permitted the media within the premises of the shrine renamed as Lal Masjid by them. They also vowed to re-build Jamia Hafsa, a girls' madrasa attached to Lal Masjid which was demolished after the military raid on the Islamabad-based mosque.
While the Pakistan government mulled options to recapture the shrine, Turangzai's grandson Syed Khushhal Khan Bacha asked local Taliban and the government to "refrain from desecrating" it and vacate his grandfather's tomb.
Bacha said if the Taliban wanted to fight the US and its allies, they should go to Afghanistan and fight the soldiers there instead of launching attacks from mosques and tombs.
"Haji Sahib did not use mosques and tombs for his resistance. Please vacate them peacefully," Bacha told a press conference in Peshawar yesterday.
Bureau Report