...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
carnage, the liberal and religious elements returned to their old confrontation centered on Lal Masjid
...literally the
Red Mosque, located in Islamabad and frequented by all sorts of high govt officials. The proprietors, Ghazi Abdul Rasheed and Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi, unleashed their Islamic storm troopers on the city, shutting down whorehouses and beating people up who weren't devout enough. The Musharraf govt put an end to the nonsense by besieging the place. Abdul Aziz Ghazi was nabbed while he was trying to escape dressed up like a girl. BBC reported that the corpse count at 173, but other claims, usually hysterical, say there were up to 1000 titzup. Among their number was Abdul Rashid Ghazi. Everyone then said tut-tut and what a nice guy he had been...
and its chief holy man, Maulana Abdul Aziz
...nutball holy man who runs the Lal Masjid in the heart of Pakistain's capital. After instigating a rebellion against the state in 2007, he was caught trying to sneak away dressed in a burka. He rejects democracy as un-Islamic, which it probably is...
on Sunday.
There appeared little let up in their narratives, though the civil society elements decided to take to a legal course.
"We have to adopt some legal way along with our peaceful protest to remove the maulana," said Jibran Nasir speaking for the campaigners. He demanded that sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act be added to the FIR registered against the chief holy man of Lal Masjid for inciting sectarian hatred and violence.
"It is a defining moment and the movement can change the fate of Pakistain," he said, appealing to the people to gather in number at Aabpara cop shoppe on Monday at 5pm for that purpose.
An advocate and human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
activist from Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
, Nasir was in Islamabad when Maulana Aziz's remark that he did not consider the 142 schoolchildren killed by the Taliban in Peshawar "deaders" caused great resentment in the public.
Nasir said the civil society protest would be extended to Lahore and Karachi if the maulana was not charged under the anti-terrorism law.
On the other hand, the Jamaat Ahle Sunnat (JAS), an organization of the heads of mosques of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, held a rally in support of Maulana Aziz in front of the National Press Club on Sunday.
Most of the faces in the rally were the same seen in the meeting that the Wafaqul Madaris Arabia (WMA), the managing board of the seminaries in the country, had organised outside Lal Masjid on Saturday and mingled with the protesting liberals.
On Sunday, the bonhomie was missing and the JAS crowd swore they would not allow any action against the Lal Masjid.
They also condemned the critical remarks of MQM chief Altaf Hussain regarding Lal Masjid.
Spokesman for WMA Maulana Abdul Quddus told Dawn that WMA displayed a positive gesture by holding a protest side by side the civil society against the Peshawar carnage.
"But the statement of MQM chief that Lal Masjid should be demolished is totally unacceptable," he said, advising the MQM leader to "reconsider" his statement.
Qazi Abdul Rasheed, head of the JAS Supreme Council, told the rally that the religious segment of the society grieved the Peshawar carnage as it did the seminary students killed in Bajaur in a drone attack.
"Both were children of Pakistain," he said.
"We will not tolerate any conspiracy against the seminaries because they are the ideological garrisons the same way the army garrisons are for the defence of the country," he said, reminding that former military president "
Pervez PervMusharraf
... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ...
tried to take action against the seminaries but he failed." When Musharraf came to power, he recalled, there were 4,500 seminaries in the country. When he left they had grown to 14,500 seminaries.
"Today there are 20,000 registered seminaries in the country," declared Maulana Rasheed triumphantly.
Like him, President WMA Islamabad, Maulana Zahoor Ahmad Alvi, who is also General Secretary of JAS, also condemned the Peshawar killings with the warning that "any action" against the mosques would be unacceptable.
Maulana Nazir Farooqi of Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam
...the political wing of the Pak Taliban...
accused the MQM chief of conspiring against the Lal Masjid establishment.
Naib Khateeb of Lal Masjid Maulana Amir Siddique added to the charge that "a Brit (Altaf Hussain) has been doing politics on the blood of schoolchildren."
"Instead of Lal Masjid management, action should be taken against Pervez Musharraf, who killed innocent people," he said and warned, "We will protect the mosque at any cost."
Other speakers at the rally condemned the registration of an FIR against Maulana Aziz in Karachi.
Workers of the Pakistain Awami Tehrik also held a protest rally at Aabpara Chowk against the massacre of students and teachers in Peshawar.