Lal Masjid Will Re-Open for Friday Prayers

red-mosque.jpgLal Masjid mosque is being frantically repaired and patched following the siege and storming that dislodged and killed many terrorists, their supporters, and some students being held hostage (some partially-willingly.)

 

 Story here.

Also called Lal Masjid, the walls of the radical mosque and its adjoining seminary for girls were left scorched by explosions and pocked by bullets after a July 10 commando raid that ended a weeklong standoff with militants holed up inside.

Since then, the downtown mosque has been sealed off so it can be quickly repaired to calm outrage at the damage.

Kamran Leshari, the capital’s top administrator, said repair work was in full swing. “The mosque will be reopened on Friday for the prayer,” he told The Associated Press.

UPDATE: Maulana Ashfaq is the new Khateeb.

Maulana Ashfaq has been appointed as the new prayer leader (khateeb) of Lal Masjid. A private television channel reported that Maulana Ashfaq would lead the Friday prayer at Lal Masjid from July 27. The new Lal Masjid prayer leader is known to be impartial and uncontroversial. A small residential unit will be built for the new prayer leader and the muezzin within the premises of Lal Masjid. The children’s library is being shifted to another place, while the rubble of Jamia Hafsa is now being dumped behind the sports complex. 

It’s unknown who will lead the prayers, but a fiery leader of the MMA had promised to hold prayers there last Friday, which obviously did not come off.

Sunday was pretty quiet in Pakistan compared to recent weeks, with celebrations taking place across the country over the Chief Justice verdict and re-instatement. Jirgas to re-establish the peace in NWFP and Balochistan continue, and both the Army and the Jihadi terrorists posture. Some deserted army posts were blown-up over the weekend, and current deployment of troops appears to be in large cantonments and hilltop redoubts.

The situation is highly unstable, and I expect that the Jirga will not broker a peace as hoped for. More to come.

torture002.jpgDuring the Lal Masjid incident, I tried to keep the reporting level but as I see the terrorists and the political parties trying to tear Pakistan apart with this as a cause, it creates great anger in me. Just remember who is behind the terrorists: Al Qaeda, and their allied movements. Remember that they kill more muslims than ISAF or Nato has, and that they bring you wonderful things like this manual on how to torture fellow muslims.

None of the victims at the Al Qaida terror camp where this manual was found were US, they were Iraqi Sunni Muslims.

Remember that they kidnap your children, they use them as hostages, they send them to Aghanistan with bombs strapped on. This sure doesn’t help Afghanistan regardless of what lies they tell you. Remember they think they can declare anyone “Takfir”, as they did to all the victims in the Al Qaida torture camp in Iraq.