The Naib Imam of Lal Masjid has declared that security personnel killed in an explosion in the Swat valley on Thursday suffered the death of ‘infidels’.Addressing a news conference in the camp office of Rawalpindi-Islamabad Press Club, Amir Siddiqui, who was recently appointed to the job by the government on the orders of the Supreme Court, also announced support for militant Swat cleric Maulana Fazlullah.
He said Fazlullah had supported late Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who was killed in the military operation on Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa in July. He criticised Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leaders Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Maulana Fazlur Rehman for having played no role to stop the operation. “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.
Amir Siddiqui is nephew of Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who was the Naib Khatib of Lal Masjid. 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 Balochistan,” he observed. He criticised the ‘national reconciliation’ policy under which, he said, all cases of corruption against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto had been withdrawn.