07-11-2007, 05:09 PM
<b>Raid at Islamabad Mosque Turns Long and Deadly</b>
<b>The battle for Islamabad</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The fact that several bouts of negotiations proved fruitless may not be unrelated to the governmentâs choice of negotiators: Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Ijazul Haq invariably seemed all too eager to accept the outlandish demands of the mosqueâs clerics without obtaining any meaningful reciprocal concessions. Either their skills in this department left a great deal to be desired, or they were pursuing an agenda at odds with the purported policies of General Pervez Musharraf.
The charge that a hard core of militants associated with organisations such as Lashkar-i-Tayyaba and Jaish-i-Mohammed was entrenched in the mosque was aired several days after the siege began, and there was no guarantee its culmination would bring clarity.
<b>And this despite the proximity of the ISI headquarters to Lal Masjid, which meant that military intelligence personnel regularly went there to pray. Or perhaps because of it, given persistent allegations that the two maulanas owed their relative untouchability to connections in the military hierarchy. After all, their father, Maulana Abdullah â the mosqueâs first preacher and a vociferous advocate of jihad â was believed to be close to the military dictator General Ziaul Haq. </b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b>The battle for Islamabad</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The fact that several bouts of negotiations proved fruitless may not be unrelated to the governmentâs choice of negotiators: Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Ijazul Haq invariably seemed all too eager to accept the outlandish demands of the mosqueâs clerics without obtaining any meaningful reciprocal concessions. Either their skills in this department left a great deal to be desired, or they were pursuing an agenda at odds with the purported policies of General Pervez Musharraf.
The charge that a hard core of militants associated with organisations such as Lashkar-i-Tayyaba and Jaish-i-Mohammed was entrenched in the mosque was aired several days after the siege began, and there was no guarantee its culmination would bring clarity.
<b>And this despite the proximity of the ISI headquarters to Lal Masjid, which meant that military intelligence personnel regularly went there to pray. Or perhaps because of it, given persistent allegations that the two maulanas owed their relative untouchability to connections in the military hierarchy. After all, their father, Maulana Abdullah â the mosqueâs first preacher and a vociferous advocate of jihad â was believed to be close to the military dictator General Ziaul Haq. </b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->