Federal Minister for Religious Affairs, Muhammad Ejazul Haq said on Friday that the operation against Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa was being delayed to ensure the safe exit of all female hostages in the madrassa. “The government has been adhering to the policy of restraint and negotiations since the Lal Masjid issue arose in January,” he said, adding that many interpreted this policy as the government’s inability to handle the problem. But today, he added, the entire world has appreciated the government’s approach to the problem.
The minister was briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Religious Affairs at a meeting chaired by Senator Maulana Sami-ul-Haq at the Agriculture House here. Ejazul Haq said President General Pervez Musharraf has strictly directed the security forces to move with patience so that the lives of the innocents in Jamia Hafsa would not be endangered. He said more than one hundred militants, most of them from Balochistan, were in Jamia Hafsa and had taken the female students hostage.