By IANS
Islamabad : The famous but controversial Lal Masjid has come a long way from being the centre of learning, favoured by the national capital's elite, from where calls for jihad went out in the 1980s.
It is now the nerve centre of militancy that is embarrassing the Musharraf Government, now a US ally against terrorism. It is trying to curb militants' activities that recently strained even Sino-Pak relations.
China demanded and Pakistan agreed last week that Chinese working in the capital and elsewhere would receive better security after six Chinese women masseurs were abducted and held hostage for 36 hours on the charge that the massage parlour also doubled as a brothel.
Lal Masjid controls the Jamia Hafsa seminary for girls and has become the home of Kalashnikov-carrying Talibat – the female version of Taliban.
The number of boys at Jamia Fareedia and girls at Jamia Hafsa is not known. But the government thinks that they are highly motivated and armed and they have explosives.
President Pervez Musharraf said last week that militants of Jaish-e-Mohammed were inside the complex and they included suicide bombers.
Keen to evict them, but not ready to shed blood of innocent civilians – the complex is near the populated city centre – he had invited Imam-e-Kaaba, Islam's highest priest, to intercede between the government and the militants.
The complex is close to the headquarters of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) – Pakistan's powerful spy network – and many of its personnel visited the mosque for prayers.
ISI is also known to recruit fighters for the jihad in the 1980s and for the Taliban subsequently from the seminary that attracts a large number of tribal youths.
Security analysts have noted that the complex has connections with the tribals of Waziristan and its people are allegedly involved in terror attacks at home and abroad, including militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and the 7/7 bombing in London.
During the anti-Soviet war in neighbouring Afghanistan, the mosque and the seminaries were patronised by the then ruler, Ziaul Haq. Its chief priest, Maulana Abdullah, a Mari tribal from Balochistan, was a respected man.
Now his two sons, Maulana Abdul Aziz and Abdul Rashid Ghazi, are controlling the complex. Reports say that they had maintained close links with the Al Qaeda and the Taliban leadership prior to 9/11.
The present phase began when the mosque and the seminaries protested the demolition of seven mosques as part of town planning. Girl students captured the seminary's library and refused to move out.
The mosques have since been built or are in the process of completion. But the standoff has continued.
The government has been criticised for being 'soft' on the issue. The Ghazi Brothers, as they are called, have since used the students, both boys and girls, for several missions including the abduction of Chinese masseurs.
A fatwa from the Lal Masjid forced the resignation of Tourism Minister Nilofar Bakhtiar after photographs appeared showing her hugging a Frenchman after a para-jump in France.
The latest declaration from the mosque, a day before Tuesday's clashes took place, was against the film "Khuda Ke Liye" starring Naseeruddin Shah.