| I checked the date on the article, just in case, and it really is a new stand-off. |
...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...
, which has been occupied by its deposed khateeb 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...
, with the holy man's supporters chanting slogans amidst a heavy police presence.
Like during the previous two governments, Maulana Aziz is testing the nerves of the government by occupying the state-owned mosque for the past two weeks and reiterating his claim to be its prayer leader.
The standoff continued on Saturday, with the Maulana remaining holed up inside the mosque along with several female students. Police have cordoned off the area by placing barriers and barbed wires on the roads around the mosque.
With no solution in sight, both sides appeared to have adopted a strict posture, possibly to mount pressure on each other. The Islamabad assistant commissioner (AC) City was present outside the mosque today and discouraged interaction between police and the supporters of Maulana Aziz who continued to arrive at the site the whole day in a bid to cross the barricades.
Related:
Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi: 2019-03-24 Maulana Abdul Aziz dodges ICT admin, delivers sermon at Lal Masjid
Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi: 2019-03-22 Tweets suggest possible missile exchange between Pakistan and India
Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi: 2019-02-27 Lal Masjid warned by CDA to stop illegal construction on plot alloted for Jamia Hafsa
Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi: 2019-03-24 Maulana Abdul Aziz dodges ICT admin, delivers sermon at Lal Masjid
Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi: 2019-03-22 Tweets suggest possible missile exchange between Pakistan and India
Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi: 2019-02-27 Lal Masjid warned by CDA to stop illegal construction on plot alloted for Jamia Hafsa