By Xinhua
Islamabad: The Pakistani government has deployed over 600 security personnel around the controversial Lal Masjid here to keep tabs on the activities of religious students.
Media reported Thursday that the paramilitary forces along with barbed wires have surrounded the Aabpara Community Centre, where Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) and its affiliated seminaries lie.
“It has been decided to take severe action against local Taliban in case of violence (perpetrated) by them,” an unnamed security official was quoted as saying by The News.
The action has been taken days after religious students in an overnight raid at an Islamabad-based Chinese clinic abducted seven Chinese, who were released later.
According to The Nation, stick-wielding young followers of Lal Masjid administration were found laying down broken electricity poles and branches of trees to block both the roads in front of the main gates of the mosque.
Vowing to enforce Shariat law in the country, Lal Masjid managers and their students have taken a series of “bold” steps – from occupying a government library, attacking some local women and music shops, to kidnapping policemen – which were termed “unlawful” activities by authorities.