July 09, 2007	Monday	Jamadi-us-Sani 23, 1428

RAWALPINDI, July 8: The Lal Masjid standoff is developing violent trends in society, particularly among the youths who are taking keen interest in media coverage of the showdown as an action movie.

Cable operators in the twin cities say their clients are demanding smooth services of only those channels which are airing the Lal Masjid event, adding earlier they usually received complaints related to entertainment channels.

They said people were watching these channels till late night and their main focus was on news coverage.

Mujahid Ali, a cable operator, said they had never received such demands for these channels, as the young generation was usually concerned with music channels before the Lal Masjid saga began.

“Now-a-days we receive no complaint about Indian channels and the common demand of our clients is for Pakistani channels,” Mr Ali claimed.

Interestingly, the lingering Lal Masjid episode looks like an action movie with the fresh-blooded generation being great fan of fight scenes.

People from all walks of life including government officials watch the showdown on TV channels everywhere - at homes, restaurants, offices and market places.

They are seen exchanging views about the clash with some favouring the government and others taking side with the clerics.

“What happened to Lal Masjid. How long it will take to settle. Is the government intends to launch a full-scale operation and are there really suicide bombers inside the mosque” are the commonly asked questions by people these days.

Even schoolchildren, who usually take interests in cartoons and sports channels, have diverted their attentions towards the Lal Masjid issue. “I wonder why my children prefer to watch the ongoing operation against the seminary students,” Raja Liaquat, a resident of I-8/4, said while talking to this reporter on Saturday.

A psychiatrist at the Rawalpindi General Hospital said violent movies built an aggressive psyche. The more the characters in a movie resembles the viewers the more it would have impacts, he added.

To a question, he agreed that there was a Lal Masjid phobia across the country particularly in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, adding that violent movies easily penetrated into the minds of people.