Gunbattle at radical Pakistan mosque, three hurt

PAKISTAN: Pakistani security forces exchanged gunfire Tuesday with masked students from a pro-Taliban mosque in Islamabad that has been at the centre of a six-month standoff, AFP correspondents said.

Two paramilitary troops and a policeman were injured in the flare-up outside Islamabad’s hardline Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, as policemen continued to fire heavy volleys of teargas at the building, they said.

The mosque has been monitored by scores of security personnel since its students took control of a neighbouring government-run children’s library in January. Tension has increased since last month when the students briefly kidnapped seven Chinese nationals from an acupuncture clinic. Mosque officials said the clinic was a brothel.

Violence erupted on Tuesday when around 10 students wielding batons attacked a police party which was taking up positions around the mosque, a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“The boys took away four guns and a wireless set of the police,” the official said.

Police then fired teargas at the students, prompting an exchange of gunfire lasting around 15 minutes, witnesses said. Gunshots continued to echo out intermittently.

Four burqa-clad female students rushed out of the mosque carrying a small girl, whom they told AFP had been overcome by teargas fumes.

Hundreds of students grasping Kalashnikov assault rifles, some wearing gas masks, stood outside the walls of the mosque chanting “Jihad! Jihad! (holy war)” after the battle, witnesses said.

Others started digging a bunker and setting up a barricade of sandbags.

Nearby bazaars closed down and people with cloth over their mouth to protect themselves from the tear gas ran away in panic.

The seminary’s students in March launched a Taliban-style anti-vice drive involving the kidnapping of several police and civilians.

Islamabad, Tuesday, AFP