By IANS
Islamabad : The presence of hardcore militants inside the Lal Masjid and the formidable range of weaponry found after security forces ended their operation indicated the biggest failure for Pakistani intelligence, say analysts and media reports.
Statements from President Pervez Musharraf and Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao claiming the presence of the militants and the weaponry inside the mosque complex in the heart of the capital are being viewed as an acceptance of this failure.
“It was the biggest intelligence failure,” said Supreme Court Bar Association president Munir A. Malik. “How come the intelligence agencies were not aware of the happenings in the mosque?” the Daily Times quoted him as asking.
Mutahir Ahmed, a professor of international relations at Karachi University, said the failures were not just about the presence of weapons. “It’s also about the presence of pro-Taliban militants.”
Critics are also asking how this build up of arms and militants could take place over six months with Musharraf’s home being just a kilometre away and no safety consideration for foreigners in the diplomatic enclave located equally close to the mosque and the seminaries attached to it.
There had been reports about the links between shadowy intelligence agencies and the two brothers who ran the mosque – Abdul Aziz and Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who was killed – even before the operation to flush out the mosque.
Dozens of people were killed in two days of fierce room-to-room fighting at the complex in the heart of Islamabad where insurgents had built bunkers and trenches to hold off the army commandos.
The government’s declaration that the ammunition belongs to the Lal Masjid’s “militants”, even if blindly accepted, is a verdict against the whole network of intelligence agencies in the country, The News said Friday.
“The weapons, which were shown to have been found from the mosque premises, include rocker launchers, landmines, Kalashnikovs (AK-47 assault rifles), hand grenades, RPGs (rocket propelled grenades), pistols, guns, loads of rounds, etc,” it noted.
“Now after the Lal Masjid operation is over leaving many dead, the government has also discovered that the Lal Masjid-Jamia Hafsa Complex was being used as a terrorist spot.
“Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao has said that Jamia Hafsa was not a religious seminary but a place from where every kind of terrorist activities were taking place. He, however, did not bother to explain how it became possible in the heart of Islamabad,” the newspaper said.
However, The News pointed to another aspect of the problem at Lal Masjid. “There is a general perception that the agencies had their role in the making of Lal Masjid force.”
Touching upon the political dimensions of the task carried out by the intelligence agencies, it said: “Contrary to their primary role of doing espionage for the security of the country, the intelligence agencies here have been repeatedly caught napping as they have been more concerned with spying on judges, politicians, bureaucrats and even journalists. Now these agencies are even making political parties and fielding candidates for elections.”
It pointed to a Supreme Court directive asking the director general of the Intelligence Bureau to ‘cleanse’ the court complex and houses of the judges and remove bugs and other devices.