(AKI/DAWN) - The cleric of the radical Islamabad mosque, Lal Masjid has declared that security personnel killed in an explosion in the Swat valley on Thursday suffered the death of ‘infidels’. Amir Siddiqui, who was recently appointed to the job by the government on the orders of the Supreme Court, also announced support for militant pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah who is based in Swat.| Amir Siddiqui, who was recently appointed to the job by the government on the orders of the Supreme Court, also announced support for militant pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah who is based in Swat. |
Pakistani troops on Friday surrounded and attacked Fazlullah's stronghold, in the district of Swat in northern Pakistan. It is not clear if Fazlullah is inside the hideout. The operation comes after a bomb attack in the main town of Swat left at least 17 soldiers and three civilians dead. The army had deployed 2,500 more troops in the area on Wednesday to combat rising militancy. Siddiqui said Fazlullah had supported the former cleric of the mosque Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who was killed in the military operation on the Lal Masjid and its affiliated madrassa or Islamic school, Jamia Hafsa, in July.
Siddiqui is Abdul Rashid Ghazi's nephew. He criticised Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leaders of Pakistan's six-party religious alliance, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), for having played no role to stop the operation, that left more than 100 people dead. “Now this is our turn to support the cause of Fazlullah,” he observed and warned the government against launching an operation in Swat.
He accused the government of fighting the war of ‘infidels’ and killing its own citizens to serve the interests of the United States. He said that the situation in Swat would deteriorate to an extent that the army would not be able to get out of the quagmire. “I warn the government that the situation in Swat will be more dangerous for the army than that in the tribal areas and [the restive south-western province of] Baluchistan,” he observed.