PAKISTAN: DURABILITY TEST

Reports about explosions and acts of terror are coming from Pakistan with an alarming frequency. On 17 July, during a rally organized by political opposition, an explosion rocked Islamabad, killing 12 people and injuring 40. According to Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao, former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudri, who was sacked by a presidential decree in early March, was expected to appear before demonstrators. 

Perhaps he was to become the main victim of the suicide bomber, but has not been harmed. Several hours earlier, another explosion rocked an area near an army checkpoint in North Waziristan bordering on Afghanistan. Three soldiers and a passer-by were killed. Then, at least 11 people were killed and 30 wounded in a terrorist act in a Pakistani police recruitment center in the town of Dera Ismail Khan. A police spokesman said the act of terror had been committed by a suicide bomber who managed to merge with a crowd of recruits and detonate the bomb. On the same day, an army convoy came under attack near the Pakistani-Afghan border, claiming the lives of 14 people, including 11 servicemen. Earlier, a suicide bomber in a neighboring Pakistani district rammed a military convoy with a mined car. The act killed 24 people, while dozens were wounded. The incident took place in the so-called tribal zone on the Afghan-Pakistani border.

Observers have reached a unanimous conclusion: Islamists appear to have unleashed a guerilla war in response to a crushed rebellion in the Red Mosque (Lal Masjid) in Islamabad.

Lal Masjid in Islamabad captured front-page headlines after at least 16 people were killed and more than 150 injured in clashes between the military and students. Then hundreds of parishioners stormed a police checkpoint, attacked the Environment Ministry and then barricaded themselves in a mosque, taking dozens of women and children hostage.

The Red Mosque and religious schools attached to it have long been known as the headquarters of pro-Taleban students and professors. However, the spiritual leader of students, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, has started forming his own militia, where 6,000 people, including women, were recruited. Initially, the role of the women was confined to abducting prostitutes and, after some sententious discussion, releasing them. They were also storming audio and video retail shops. Also, female militia activists staged an action: they forcefully captured nine women from a massage saloon in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, and accused them of keeping a brothel. Several hours later the abductees, including three Chinese ladies, were set free. The Washington Times says the activists are also engaged in kidnapping other masseuses, shutting down a children's library and even taking policemen prisoner - all these are elements of their campaign to impose their strict interpretation of Islam. 

Ghazi has issued a notorious warning: if the authorities try to limit their actions, his followers will send suicide bombers to public places. "These female suicide bombers have been brought into existence by Pervez Musharraf and George Bush. My message is that the more active the attempts to crush them, the more they become," 50-year-old Ghazi said.

However, after Ghazi's spiritual followers clashed with police in the center of Islamabad and then barricaded themselves in the mosque, the authorities were left with no other option. A total of 12 APCs with heavy machine-guns were brought in. Power supply to the building was cut off over the night. The curfew was announced in the surroundings and, according to unverified reports, police even shot dead one person. Then the authorities started urging male and female students to surrender and not to shed blood. Ladies were handed over to their parents, while young guys were checked for complicity in crimes. This was followed by an attempt by the Imam of the mosque, Abdul Aziz, to leave the mosque. According to the police command, he was hoping to run away dressed as a woman and covered with a hijab, but was arrested nonetheless. Experience shows that those who don't hesitate to send their followers to death are not always prepared to die for a cause.

After that, the authorities decided to storm Lal Masjid. The operation with a coded name Silence started in the morning of 10 July. At this time there were hundreds of religious students and Islamic militants in the mosque. The special task force managed to take over the first floor of the building, which was the main stronghold of militants, almost immediately.

Sources are saying that the military received the order to start storming the building after a complete failure of negotiations. Even the fact that the delegation which was sent to hold talks with those besieged in the mosque included well-known Pakistani politicians was of no help.

According to the head of the government delegation and the leader of the ruling Party of the Muslim League Party, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, he managed to establish contact with Ghazi after a long silence, but the latter refused to accept the authorities capitulation demand and put forward a number of "unacceptable conditions".

Shujaat Hussain has told journalists that the delegation wanted to demand that Ghazi release children and women from Lal Masjid. The delegation was also ready to take away those wounded and in need of medical aid. However, Ghazi said he preferred to "go for self-sacrifice which may trigger Islamic revolution". "We have tried all the options. What happened has upset me a lot. We started these talks to save dozens of women and children," Shujaat Hussain, Pakistan's former prime minister, said. Apparently there were hundreds of women and children taken hostage in the mosque - "fighters for the purity of faith" used them as a human shield.

The outcome of the stand-off was effectively clear from the very start. More than 100 people were killed during the attack, including Abdul Rashid Ghazi and, according to some sources, his mother.

There were widespread predictions that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf will have to deal with Islamist uprisings in different parts of the country. To top it off, an al-Qaeda man quickly released a "video clip" - this time sending threats to Pakistani authorities. Al-Zawahiri called on the country residents to join their forces and declare a jihad to avenge the Pakistani army's attack on the Red Mosque.

"Pakistan's Muslims, your salvation is only possible through jihad. Falsified election and politicians will not save you. Neither will the bargaining, sycophancy and talks with criminals. There is no salvation in political maneuvering either. Musharraf and his hunting dogs have betrayed your dignity to please the USA and Israel," AP quoted Ayman Muhammad Rabaie al-Zawahiri as saying. The voice in the clip describes the killing of the deputy head of rebels, Abdulla Rashid Ghazi, a "dirty and callous crime" committed by the Pakistani military on orders from Musharraf. And this crime can be washed off "only by repentant blood".

Besides, another message from al-Zawahiri was extensively discussed by the media about a week ago. In the message he called for a jihad against "treacherous governments" of Muslim countries. And it cannot be ignored that radical circles in these countries, without which the present al-Qaeda could not have survived even for a day, have embarked on the implementation of the main objective - attacks on their own power institutes. Acts of terror in Western countries was nothing more than PR for them.

Most observers see the developments around the Red Mosque as a manifestation of the Pakistani authorities' determination to put an end to the radical-controlled religious schools. Furthermore, the schools were recently prohibited to enroll foreign students.

Against the backdrop of the Red Mosque crisis, an interesting statement has been released by Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's former prime minister and leader of the opposition currently living in London. She promised to return home and re-enter big politics by the next election. According to Bhutto, one of the key items on her manifesto is to protect Pakistani youngsters from extremist influence and recruitment. This means that many Pakistanis are ready to support tough actions against extremists.