Pakistani clerics threaten government with "obscenity" clampdown

Apr 27, 2007, 14:27 GMT

Islamabad - Administrators of a radical mosque in Islamabad on Friday cautioned that hundreds of hard-line religious students were ready to crack down on entertainment stores and brothels in the Pakistani capital.

The warning was issued by the chief cleric of Lal Masjid or Red Mosque, Maulana Abdul Aziz, while delivering a sermon to worshippers who assembled at the mosque compound for weekly prayers.

The renewed threat came three weeks after Aziz gave a one-month deadline to the authorities to close down brothels and audio and video shops, as he announced the establishment of a self-declared Islamic court in Lal Masjid.

'The deadline is running out and if (the government) does not do something to curtail the obscene activities going on in the city then we will take action ourselves,' the cleric said.

Even before setting the timeframe, Aziz and his younger brother, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, last month launched an anti-vice campaign in Islamabad using madrassa religious school students to enforce their interpretation of Islamic laws.

Girl students of the Jamia Hafsa seminary raided a house in the vicinity of the Red Mosque and abducted an alleged prostitute and her three relatives and kept them at the madrassa for two days.

The abducted people were released after the woman repented publicly, but soon after being freed she told journalists that it was a forced confession extracted under torture.

Stick-wielding pupils accompanied by their female counterparts also issued warnings to owners of CD and DVD shops for promoting vulgarity.

Enforcement of Taliban-style rules in Islamabad triggered nationwide protests by public and civil society organizations with more than 100,000 people rallying in the port city of Karachi alone against 'religious terrorism.'

The Red Mosque and its two madrassas have been at loggerheads with the authorities since January 21 over the demolition of mosques in Islamabad that were built illegally on protected state land.

The chief of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League party, Shujaat Hussain, earlier this week said all disputes between the local authorities and the mosque administration had been 'amicably resolved'. But Ghazi denied any breakthrough in the deadlock.

The government of President Pervez Musharraf has come under criticism at home and abroad for allowing extremist manifestations in the heart of the capital.

While favouring a negotiated solution, the military leader has said the students will not be allowed to impose their version of Islam on society.

In turn, the Red Mosque administrators have warned of 'dire consequences', if it is attacked by security forces and have called upon students to be ready to carry out suicide bombings in retaliation.