A cleric leading militants besieged in an Islamabad mosque hopes their "martyrdom" would spark an Islamic revolution in Pakistan, he said in a statement published by newspapers yesterday.
Surrounded by government forces, Abdul Rashid Ghazi took over leadership of a Taliban-style movement at Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, after his brother was caught trying to escape a day after the siege began last Tuesday.
"We have firm belief in God that our blood will lead to a revolution in the country," a grey-bearded Ghazi said in a statement characterised as a "will" by Jang, Pakistan's biggest selling Urdu language newspaper.
PHOTO: EPA
"God willing, Islamic revolution will be the destiny of this nation," wrote the rebel cleric, whose movement is symptomatic of militancy and extremism seeping into Pakistani cities from tribal areas near the Afghan border.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who was urged by Pakistani moderates to use force against the Lal Masjid radicals far sooner, warned the militants on Saturday that they would be killed if they did not surrender.
Ghazi -- polite, articulate and soft-spoken -- said his followers would sooner die.
Many of the 5,000 students enrolled at the two Islamic schools affiliated to Lal Masjid before the violence began came from Taliban hotbeds.
Officials branded Ghazi a liar after he told Pakistani news channels yesterday that more than 300 followers, mostly female students, had been killed during intense overnight gunbattles.
Ghazi has claimed that he has 1,900 followers in the mosque, while his brother said there were 850, including 600 women.
Ghazi denied children were coerced into staying in the compound, and said they remained out of support for his cause.
"We want justice for poor people. They should get bread. We want an end to adultery, bribery, oppression, obscenity and nepotism. Implementation of the Islamic system is panacea to all these problems," Ghazi wrote.
Meanwhile, Pakistani forces were moving closer to a full-scale assault on the mosque, after a senior army commando was shot dead in fierce clashes.
The military said Colonel Haroon Islam died after an operation to blast through part of the wall surrounding the fortified complex in a bid to free the women and children allegedly being used as human shields.
Officials said the government was under pressure to end the six-day siege, which has killed at least 24 people, as initial plaudits for its tough stance turned to questions about how long the standoff could be allowed to last.
"The government may have to rethink its strategy in the light of the sad martyrdom of a senior army official and the resistance that has been shown by what appears to be highly trained militants," Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azeem said.
Musharraf and Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz spoke by telephone yesterday morning, after Musharraf attended the soldier's funeral, to weigh up the government's options.
"They have discussed how to bring the crisis to a swift end, including possible assault on the compound," a top official said.
"You are damned if you do, damned if you don't. It is a very precarious situation," the official said.
"Intelligence reports indicate the longer the siege goes on the greater the threat posed by the hardliners loyal to the Red Mosque in other parts of the country," the top official said.
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
RSS