Fire erupts amid Pakistan’s mosque standoff

[annabanana]

Source: MSNBC.COM

Fire erupts amid Pakistan’s mosque standoff
NBC News and news services
Updated: 1 hour, 1 minute ago

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - An intense fire erupted Saturday at the Red Mosque and madrassa where militants and security forces have been engaged in a six-day standoff, NBC News reported.

Pakistani military forces carried out an operation earlier, and walls and infrastructure of the compound have been damaged. No further details were available regarding casualties.

The fire comes hours after President Pervez Musharraf ordered the Islamist militants barricaded inside to surrender or die, while concern grew for hundreds of women and children inside the beseiged compound in the Pakistani capital.

-snip-

A series of explosions occurred in late afternoon, while there had been several exchanges of fire since early morning



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19644496

---

This can only make things worse for everybody.

[eleny]

1. uh-oh

[mourningdove92]

2. A fire. Woment and children inside the compound.

Where have I read that before?

[seriousstan]

3. I believe it was the last time a whack job fundie hid behind women and children.

[ohio2007]

4. actually, the whack job fundie dressed up as a woman surrounded

by woman and children;


A grab of Ajj TV shows, in circle, Abdul Aziz, chief cleric of the Red Mosque,
as he is surrounded by security officials after his arrest near The Red Mosque in Islamabad. Pakistani security forces arrested Aziz
as he tried to flee while disguised in an all-covering women's burqa on Wednesday, officials said.(AFP/Ajj TV)
http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070704/photos_wl_afp/300b90515402111e17f1ce731f73e480

His "cloaking device" failed him. Guess it was allahs will eh?

[seriousstan]

5. SHA'A ALLAH ......obviously allah wasn't.

[ohio2007]

6. If he would have "pulled it off" some would

have been singing praise to his greatness;;

snip
....“The Lal Masjid administration and students were in a state of war and this kind of escape is justified in a situation like this,” said Principal of Jamia Darul Kher, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Mufti Mohammad Usmanyar Khan.

He said that had Maulana Abdul Aziz succeeded in his escape, the world would have been all praise for him. “They would all have said ...(the maulvi did an amazing job and was able to get his away around all the law-enforcing personnel). His capture is being misinterpreted and everyone is only critcising him.”

snip

Religious scholar Maulana Aun Mohammad Naqvi said that the ‘drama’ had been playing in Islamabad for some time by a small sect that supported the enforcement of Taliban-like Shariah in Pakistan. “In the past six months, they tried their best to enforce this style of leadership
but Maulana Abdul Aziz’s burqa-clad escape has proved that these people claim to be Jihaadis but when the time comes, they cannot live up to the challenge.” He said that all ulema of Pakistan should now sit together to find out how to deal with phonies like them, a larger number of who is present in our midst today.

snip



What happened has defamed Islam and grieved every Muslim,”...

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C07%5C06%5Cstory_6-7-2007_pg12_6