The captured chief cleric of the Red Mosque led funeral prayers for his slain brother yesterday and forecast that the death of the mosque's militant defenders would push Pakistan toward an "Islamic revolution."
The army crackdown on the radical mosque has raised the standing of President General Pervez Musharraf among moderates and foreign backers worried about rising extremism in Pakistan. But it has given hard-liners a rallying point and new martyrs to mourn, prompting calls from al-Qaeda and Taliban for revenge attacks.
Troops combing the Islamabad mosque and its adjoining seminary for girls found Abdul Rashid Ghazi's body among the remains of at least 73 people after the 35-hour assault ended on Wednesday.
PHOTO: AFP
The remains of dozens of militants were lowered into temporary graves in Islamabad early yesterday.
Officials released Ghazi's body directly to his relatives, who carried it to his ancestral village in Punjab Province for burial yesterday.
Police escorted Maulana Abdul Aziz, who was caught during the eight-day siege while trying to flee disguised as a woman, to Basti Abdullah so that he could attend his brother's funeral at a seminary set up by his father.
The brother took over the running of the Red Mosque in the capital after their father's assassination in a sectarian attack in 1998.
"Hundreds of our mothers, sisters, sons and daughters have rendered sacrifices," said Aziz, a gray-bearded man dressed in white clothes and a checkered head scarf, before leading prayers attended by about 3,000 people.
"Whatever happened in the past days is not hidden from anyone. God willing, Pakistan will have an Islamic revolution soon. The blood of martyrs will bear fruit," he said.
"We can let our necks be severed but we cannot bow down before oppressive rulers. Our struggle will continue. There are many Ghazis living to be martyred," he said.
About two dozen police commandos led Aziz into the madrasah compound and escorted him back after the funeral prayers and drove him away in a white police pickup truck.
Some 700 police were deployed for security at the gathering, area police chief Maqsoodul Hassan Chaudhry said.
Official reports said that 106 people died in eight days of fighting around the Red Mosque.
Meanwhile, al-Qaeda's deputy leader joined the militant outcry against Musharraf, calling on Pakistanis to wage holy war to avenge the army assault.
In a video, Ayman al-Zawahri told Pakistanis their president "rubbed your honor in the dirt."
Ghazi's death was a "dirty, despicable crime" that can "only be washed away by repentance or blood," said al-Zawahri, who is believed to be hiding near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique