Twitter
Advertisement

Thousands mourn 'martyred' Pakistan mosque cleric

Around 2,000 people chanting "Allahu Akbar!" massed for the burial of a pro-Taliban Pakistani cleric killed in the army raid on Islamabad's Lal Masjid.

Latest News
article-main
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin
BASTI ABDULLAH, PAKISTAN: Around 2,000 people chanting "Allahu Akbar!" (God is greater) massed for the burial on Thursday of a pro-Taliban Pakistani cleric killed in the army raid on Islamabad's Lal Masjid.   

The crowd, under tight police watch, prayed for Abdul Rashid Ghazi, 43, due to be buried later in this dust-bowl village as his brother vowed the fight would go on to bring Pakistan under Islamic law.  

The hardline mullah's bearded face, minus his signature glasses, could be seen as he was wrapped in a burial shroud and placed in a wooden coffin two days after he was cut down in crossfire making a last stand at his mosque. His elder brother Abdul Aziz, the leader of the mosque who was captured last week, and other family members who had been arrested by authorities were allowed to attend the last rites.   

"I lost my brother, my students, for the enforcement of Islamic sharia (law)," Aziz told mourners, speaking under tight police guard. "Ghazi and all those who died in the mosque are shaheed (martyrs). My wife and daughters are in custody but this will not stop us from struggling for an Islamic system," he said.   

Several people began to chant slogans against the government of President Pervez Musharraf but were quickly stopped by other mourners, witnesses said.  Witnesses said Aziz, who was arrested while leaving the mosque dressed in a burqa, was taken away before his brother's burial as hundreds of people surrounded the police car carrying him.   

Uniformed and plainclothes police were deployed in their hundreds in the area to maintain security as authorities feared a backlash over the killings at the Red Mosque complex, officials said.    In Islamabad, where the army ended the week-long standoff in a hail of gunfire and explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday, at least 27 unidentified bodies were buried by officials.   

Troops Wednesday cleared the final clutch of diehard extremists from the mosque after two days of intense fighting that left at least 73 rebels and nine soldiers dead and turned the heart of the capital into a battleground.  Ghazi and students at the mosque, which houses a female madrassa, had been involved in an aggressive Taliban-style campaign to impose Islamic law, including the kidnapping of seven Chinese accused of involvement in prostitution.   

Asma Aziz, the 14-year-old daughter of the surviving cleric Aziz, said she wanted to die inside the mosque, her lawyer said. "I wanted to remain with uncle shaheed Ghazi, fighting till the end, but my mother asked me to accompany her," lawyer Hashmat Habib quoted Asma as telling him on Wednesday, when he met her.   

Asma, her elder sister and their mother will face charges including the murder of security personnel in Pakistan's anti-terrorism court, the lawyer said. Asma also denied that her father wanted to escape and said authorities had asked him to cover his face to avoid the media and told him a meeting had been arranged with a top government official, she said.   

"He wanted to save the lives of hundreds of men, women and children," she reportedly said. "I know him as his daughter, he would have never surrendered."  
Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement