From Land Mafia to Militant Base: The Rise of Lal Masjid

Shiite News: In Islamabad, if you start constructing a mosque on government land without permission, anyone who objects can be branded an infidel. Along with the mosque, your residence and madrasa — a guaranteed source of lifelong income — spring up automatically.

According to the CDA report, 194 mosques (attached madrasas and residences) have been built in Islamabad alone by grabbing land in this way. Of these, 165 are in CDA sectors. Where the value of the land is Rs 5 million to Rs 10 million per marla.

Maulvi Abdul Aziz’s father, Mufti Abdullah, was the official maulvi of Lal Masjid. For him, the CDA had allotted 206 square yards of land adjacent to Lal Masjid to the Auqaf Department.

But seeing the land vacant, he continued to expand his possession and gradually occupied 9533 square yards of land.

He also seized the land of the fire brigade. He built a luxurious residence and a madrasa on this possession and named it ‘Jamia Hafsa’.

After the death of Mufti Abdullah in 1998, his talented sons Abdul Aziz and Abdul Rashid further increased the possession and also seized the land reserved for the women’s library. During these days, both the brothers also confessed their links to Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

Finally, the CDA took action on this fresh possession and in March 2001, CDA officials arrived to reclaim the land reserved for the women’s library. Ghazi Abdul Rashid assured the CDA officials that if you leave, we will demolish the encroachments ourselves in a week.

The CDA officials fell for this trick and went back. The promise was not fulfilled and when the CDA officials arrived again, the people of Lal Masjid were ready. Around 100 baton-wielding female students attacked the CDA officials. The officials fled after being beaten up and an FIR was registered against the Lal Masjid administration at a nearby police station.

Shortly after this, 9/11 happened and a series of speeches against Pakistan and the Pakistani army began in Lal Masjid.

In 2003, Baitullah Mehsud’s representative met the Issa Ghazi brothers and both of them decided to support Baitullah Mehsud, who was organizing the Taliban against Pakistan in those days. After this meeting, terrorists from Waziristan started coming to Lal Masjid and students of Lal Masjid started being sent to Waziristan.

In 2004, when the Pakistan Army fought its first war with terrorists in Waziristan, Lal Masjid immediately issued a fatwa that the Pakistan Army was apostate, the killed soldiers were not martyrs but dead and it was not permissible to offer their funeral prayers.

In the same year, Ghazi Abdul Rashid’s vehicle was used for the movement of terrorists. But the administration continued to hesitate to take action against them.

In 2005, Islamabad police finally raided Lal Masjid on the first charge of links with terrorists. But the baton-wielding female students present there came out in hundreds and attacked the police.

The police could not touch the female students and were helpless. This incident made the people of Lal Masjid understand that security personnel do not touch madrasah students, especially women. Which they later took full advantage of.

By 2006, many students of Lal Masjid had received training in Waziristan and Lal Masjid had become a base camp for Waziristan terrorists. Not only Waziristani but also Uzbeks and Egyptians started arriving at Lal Masjid. The command and control of Lal Masjid had been transferred to Waziristan.

Government representatives started contacting the people of Lal Masjid and demanded that they end their links with terrorists, which they rejected.

In the same year, CDA issued a notice to recover the land of 70 out of 194 mosques and madrasas that had been built in Islamabad. At the same time, the ‘occupiers’ were assured that alternative places would be provided. These included Jamia Hafsa.

In January 2007, the CDA demolished the 5 mosques and madrasas that had been vacated and built on the green belt, i.e. in the middle of the road.

In response, the students of Jamia Hafsa, carrying sticks, also occupied the children’s library adjacent to the women’s library.

At the same time, about a hundred students and girls reached the nearby Aabpara market with sticks in their hands and entered the CD shops there, took out the CDs and set them on fire and warned the shopkeepers.

They stopped the vehicles and broke the tape recorders installed in them with sticks. The end of immorality and the implementation of Sharia law in Pakistan was announced from the Red Mosque. All this happened after the CDA notice.

The police were sent to stop them. So the mischievous students of Lal Masjid sat in a circle around the newly occupied place.

All of them had jihadi bands tied on their heads and started shouting slogans of ‘Sharia or martyrdom’. Meanwhile, hundreds of students of Jamia Faridiya also started roaming around the markets with sticks in their hands.

There is another madrasa near Jamia Faridiya Faisal Masjid. This is also owned by Ghazi brothers and it was built by occupying a land 10 times larger than the allotted land.

Apart from them, there is a third madrasa of the same brothers in G-7. Its name is also Jamia Hafsa and a large part of it was also built by occupying it. The value of this land, which covers at least 20-25 kanals, is 3-4 billion rupees.

The government started sending negotiating delegations, but they denied to negotiate. In Lal Masjid, girls were openly trained in lathi-busting and it was also advertised. These students attacked and kidnapped two policemen.

It was left on the condition that the government would accept the latest occupation of the Lal Masjid people and the government’s negotiating team accepted the Lal Masjid people’s conditions.

The morale of the Lal Masjid people reached the sky and they demanded that the mosques that had been demolished be rebuilt and returned to the same clerics who had occupied them.

With the mediation of the Wafaq-ul-Madaris, this condition was also accepted, and the reconstruction of one of the demolished mosques was also started. Instead of stopping at this, they became more aggressive.

On March 27, 2007, the students of the Lal Masjid kidnapped 3 women on charges of obscenity. When the police arrived, some policemen also kidnapped them. After keeping them in detention for a day and a half, they were released.

On April 6, Maulvi Abdul Aziz announced a Sharia court in his mosque and declared Pakistani courts null and void.

He told people to bring their cases to the Lal Masjid. It is here that the criminals will be given Sharia punishment.

At the same time, he threatened that if the government tried to close it, the Lal Masjid students (terrorists) would carry out thousands of suicide attacks across Pakistan.

On May 18, 2007, the Lal Masjid students again kidnapped, beat up and locked up four policemen in the Lal Masjid. The police negotiated and released them.

On June 23, 2007, the students of Jamia Hafsa kidnapped and beat up 10 Chinese nationals, including women and some others.

The important thing is that the Chinese nationals were kidnapped at the very time when Aftab Sherpao was going to leave for an important visit to China a day later.

China protested and, under pressure from the Chinese ambassador, they were released after making promises.

At that time, Pakistani institutions became convinced that the connections of the Lal Masjid were going to India through Waziristan.

Pervez Musharraf was criticized across the country for being too lenient and pressure on him to take action against the Lal Masjid residents increased.

After which the Rangers were sent to Lal Masjid to help the police. The then head of the Council of Islamic Ideology, Dr. Khalid Masood, said that mosques built on illegal and occupied land are illegal and have no Sharia status.

When the Rangers arrived, shots were fired at them from the minarets of the Lal Masjid and a soldier was martyred after being shot in the chest.

A Ranger soldier was shot in the leg. Umm Hassan and Abdul Rashid took the stand that one of our “children” had shot without permission and that our “children” should not be provoked. But their Sharia court did not impose any limit on this “child”.

On July 3, a large number of baton-wielding female students came out and, according to eyewitnesses, snatched wireless sets and weapons from the Rangers.

The police saved the Rangers’ lives by firing tear gas. The Rangers were not ordered to take action, so they were helpless and the mosque administration once again took full advantage of the ‘woman card’.

After this, about 150 female students and the Taliban attacked the Meteorological Department building and started firing on people coming and going there and threw sulfur bombs there, which set the place on fire.

This was the attack after which the police and Rangers retaliated for the first time. 4 civilians died due to indiscriminate firing by the people of the Red Mosque and 4 people of the Red Mosque were killed in the retaliatory action.

The area was immediately evacuated. Barbed wire was laid around the mosque and orders were given that if anyone comes out of the mosque with a weapon, arrest them and if they open fire, shoot them. The Pakistan Army was also called in.

Along with this, the government announced on the loudspeaker that the surrendering female students would be given a stipend of Rs. 5,000 each and free education. Also, the female students will be taken home without any checking. Otherwise, the government will conduct an operation.

On July 4, 2007, firing continued from both sides. The government kept extending the deadline of the operation and appealed for surrender. At the same time, a curfew was imposed around the mosque. So that more civilians would not be targeted by the firing from the mosque.

On July 5, explosions were carried out around the mosque so that people would come out in fear. During this, the deadline was extended once again. Because the Pakistan Army did not want to conduct an operation in the mosque under any circumstances.

Sometime after these explosions, a group of girls came out who were not checked as usual. But a girl walking in the middle had a beard visible through her niqab.

A female police officer caught sight of her and decided to check her. It turned out to be Maulana Abdul Aziz who was running away wearing a burqa.

The same Abdul Aziz who kept teaching the girls the Sharia or Shahadat strips and who had claimed that I had seen the Holy Prophet (PBUH) in a dream and was doing all this on his instructions (God forbid). Abdul Aziz was arrested.

After Abdul Aziz’s shameful escape and arrest in a burqa, about 800 male and 400 female students surrendered.

On July 6, the government delegation once again held talks with the mosque people. But when they came out, security personnel were fired upon again from the Lal Masjid shortly after.

That evening, in a live program on Geo News, Abdul Rashid again went back on his terms. Everyone was convinced that the mosque was under the control of foreigners and that they would not allow any talks without fulfilling the condition of their safety.

Ghazi Abdul Rashid had only one writ that there would be no interrogation of my “Mujahideen” comrades (Waziristan terrorists) nor would anyone touch them. They will be allowed to go back to where they came from and my mother is sick and she will not be treated badly.

The promise was made, but the government was not ready to release the terrorists. During this time, 21 more students surrendered. Simultaneously, firing continued and 2 more foreigners were killed.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Army’s SSG commandos reached the scene. Their squad leader, Colonel Haroon Islam, was gravely wounded in intense firing from Lal Masjid and succumbed to his injuries two days later.

On July 6, a foreigner from the Lal Masjid tried to target Pervez Musharraf’s plane with an anti-aircraft gun from a house in Rawalpindi, but failed. Despite this, Pervez Musharraf kept delaying the decisive operation.

On July 7, after fierce resistance, the commandos gained access to the walls of the Lal Masjid. They made holes in the walls of the mosque so that women or children could escape.

At the same time, a 13-year-old boy escaped through these holes and was immediately rescued. The boy revealed that he had been forcibly stopped in the mosque. During this time, the government was constantly appealing to the terrorists to surrender.

At the request of Pakistan, an appeal was also made to the Grand Mufti and Imam of the Kaaba Sheikh Abdul Rehman, and Maulana Tariq Jameel also appealed to surrender, not to take the law into their own hands, not to turn the mosque and women into fronts.

On July 9, Finland closed its embassy in Pakistan and other countries also expressed their concern.

On July 10, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Ijaz-ul-Haq finally announced the failure of the talks. On the same day, intelligence agencies submitted a report that at least 100 terrorists were occupying the mosque. Ghazi Abdul Rashid threatened that we have enough weapons and ammunition that we can continue the war for a month.

On which the army sent food and drink in an ambulance for the last time and asked the Lal Masjid administration to surrender or at least send the women and children out.

This appeal was rejected. On the same day, the commandos decided to advance. They faced fierce resistance as modern weapons were being used to fire from inside the mosque.

The army was not allowed to use grenades and tear gas had no effect on the foreigners as everyone was wearing gas masks. The terrorists used a large number of gasoline bombs and sulfur bombs which burn everything.

The commandos were being targeted from the minarets of the mosque, especially and many were killed. But the ground floor of the mosque was cleared. 30 children and women present there ran towards the Pak army and were immediately shifted to a safe place.

Out of the 30 SSG injured that day, 19 were injured by grenades thrown by the terrorists. During this time, two suicide attacks were also carried out on the Pak army. In response, the SSG was fighting only with hand-held weapons.

The remaining terrorists went to the basement of the mosque and used the female students as their shields. Abdul Rashid gave his last statement that 30 of our Mujahideen are still left and my mother is injured. The government is using all its power against us.

When the operation on the basement started, Ghazi Abdul Rashid came out with his hands raised. Then his companions opened fire on his back and killed him. The terrorists in the basement were killed and the remaining students were rescued.

On July 11, it was announced that the mosque was cleared of terrorists.

In this operation, 11 soldiers of the Pakistan Army were martyred and 33 were injured. Among the martyred were 10 SSG commandos, which is the largest number of commandos martyred in any operation in the history of Pakistan.

91 terrorists were killed. The killed terrorists included Egyptians, Uzbeks and Arabs. 19 bodies were unrecognizable but there was no woman among them.

Between July 3 and July 11, 628 men, 465 women and 3 children were rescued from the clutches of terrorists.

Rocket launchers, grenades, anti-tank weapons, night vision goggles, landmines, suicide jackets, bomb-proof jackets and a large number of guns and pistols were recovered from the terrorists. It took 36 hours just to clear the booby traps that the terrorists had planted in the mosque.

In addition, letters from Ayman al-Zawahiri were also recovered from the mosque, urging the Ghazi brothers to launch an armed struggle against Pakistan. This operation was carried out after 18 months of continuous negotiations.

On July 11, Ayman al-Zawahiri declared jihad against Pakistan through a video statement.

Using the Lal Masjid operation as a justification, terrorists and their supporters started attacking the Pakistan Army all over Pakistan.

Jihad against Pakistan was declared an obligation. On July 12 and 14, 3 suicide attacks were carried out on the Pakistan Army.

On July 6, 2008, another attack on the police near the Lal Masjid took place, killing several people, which the Taliban called revenge for the students trained at the Lal Masjid.

The Lal Masjid was rebuilt within 15 days and opened for worshippers. Compensation was announced for the heirs of the deceased. An alternative location was announced in place of the occupied Jamia Hafsa.

A month after the operation, on August 16, 2007, the Supreme Court took a suo motu that killing terrorists by fighting in the mosque was considered extrajudicial killing.

On the same suo motu, the infamous Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry ordered the formation of a judicial commission on the Lal Masjid operation and ordered the registration of cases against the people who carried out the operation on behalf of the killed terrorists.

Iftikhar Chaudhry was asleep when the people of the Lal Masjid set up their own court and declared all the courts of Pakistan null and void. They took over the schools and started kidnapping and killing people.

On the orders of Iftikhar Chaudhry, all the students who were known to have reached Turbat from Waziristan were released without taking data and necessary guarantees. These students later carried out suicide attacks all over Pakistan.

The president of the Lahore Bar Association also made a statement in favor of the Lal Masjid people.

In October 2013, the Islamabad High Court ordered the arrest of Pervez Musharraf for carrying out an operation against the Lal Masjid people.

Similarly, in February 2016, another judge issued an arrest order for Pervez Musharraf for the murder of Abdul Rashid. The same Abdul Rashid who had been declaring war on the army for a month.

The judiciary honorably acquitted Maulana Abdul Aziz, the main character of the Lal Masjid operation and the biggest rioter, in all the cases tried in various courts against him.

The role of the Pakistani media regarding the Lal Masjid was extremely negative. First, madrasa students and Mullahs were promoted as being very kind-hearted. Girls were interviewed. They felt that they were actually creating a revolution. Jang newspaper published cartoons of policemen as goats and girls as lions.

When they started killing and kidnapping people, killing a cameraman and setting markets on fire, the entire media started questioning the writ of the state.

But when the Pakistan Army conducted the operation after showing all possible patience, the same media started singing the tune of “the girls of the Red Mosque”.

Pervez Musharraf was presented as a ruthless and brutal ruler who massacred “innocent” children to maintain his power.

This propaganda was so poisonous that General Pervez Musharraf could not be exonerated from this charge even after presenting thousands of explanations and evidence.

Anti-Musharraf anchor Hamid Mir revealed some time later that the Lal Masjid was actually controlled by the terrorists present there and the Ghazi brothers were held hostage by them.

According to the Lal Masjid Commission report, 103 people were killed in the Lal Masjid operation, none of whom were women. 92 were civilians while 11 security personnel were martyred. 16 people could not be identified.

In this inquiry that lasted for 6 months, various reports were submitted regarding the deaths, in the light of which the commission came to the conclusion that no women were among those killed in the Lal Masjid operation.

But what should be done about the fact that many political and religious parties continue their propaganda by making the Lal Masjid operation a base, and if they admit that no women or children were killed, how would their products sell?

Remember, this was a judicial commission formed on the orders of anti-Musharraf judge Iftikhar Chaudhry, in which there was no one sympathetic to Musharraf, but there were many opponents because the Judiciary Restoration Movement was also going on against Musharraf in those days.

The war of the Lal Masjid people was not for Islam but for land occupation. Which was exaggerated by the media.

Due to the failure of the negotiations, it was the Waziristan terrorists who had taken control of the mosque and they wanted their safe return at all costs.

Many relatives of the girls studying in the mosque had stated that their daughters were forcibly detained by the terrorists occupying the mosque and some of the relatives were even beaten up. No girl was killed in this operation.

Even today, the Lal Masjid people keep on making dramas every day for more land in H8 and some time ago they were saying that if we are not given a 20-kanal plot in H8, we will again launch a campaign of ‘implementing Sharia’.

Since yesterday, the same mischievous mullah is active again with the same thieves. For this, we should be grateful to our courts. Wake up Muslims, wake up. It is a million times better to pray on the roof of your house or in the courtyard than to worship in illegal mosques.

This is the business of these people. Do not lead the country towards further unrest by following the words of these two mullahs.

This is the real aim of these mullahs. By spreading chaos among the people, there will always be unrest in the country so that their business can further flourish. Live and live knowingly. Become a Muslim, not a descendant of Banu Ummiya.