ISLAMABAD: Backdoor negotiations between deposed cleric of Lal Masjid Maulana Abdul Aziz and the Islamabad administration failed to make headway on Saturday, with a senior official of the interior ministry terming the situation serious.

In a bid to end the standoff, the proscribed Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat volunteered to play a role and met officials outside the state-run mosque, while security personnel met the Islamabad administration officials to defuse the situation.

None of the sides seem to back off from their positions as the followers of Maulana Aziz and the administration enhanced their strict posture possibly in a show of strength.

The maulana had returned to state-owned Lal Masjid around two weeks ago, reiterating his claim to be its prayer leader. The situation, however, turned serious on Thursday night when over a hundred female students entered the Jamia Hafsa in Islamabad’s Sector H-11 by breaking its official seal.

After evening prayers, the occupants also started playing rhymes glorifying jihad and Sharia.

Pro-jihad rhymes, slogans resonate Aabpara after 12 years

Talking to Dawn, Maulana Aziz said: “The rhymes we are playing are not aggressive or instigative, at least if compared to the dharnas with dance and music.

“There is always a way out. But this government is more politically immature and tyrant than the Musharraf regime,” he said while comparing the political sense of former dictator Pervez Musharraf with the incumbent government.

The Maulana said his only demand was to implement the 2007 decision of the Supreme Court.

He said neither he would leave Lal Masjid nor the female students, who had entered the Jamia Hafsa H-11, would do so.

“We are not afraid of anything,” he declared.

Meanwhile, a delegation of ASWJ led by its Islamabad president Hafeez Nazeer came to Lal masjid and met the officers posted outside. The delegation assured the assistant commissioner of their support and cooperation for a peaceful solution to the standoff.

In a related development, the three major seminaries in Islamabad belonging to the Deobandi school of thought — Jamia Fareedia, Jamia Rasheedia and Jamia Muhammadia — have declined Maulana Aziz’s request to send their students either to hold a protest against the blockade of Lal Masjid or to offer prayers on the main road outside the mosque.

Around 25 to 30 of his followers who were reportedly denied entry to the mosque offered evening prayers on the main road leading from Aabpara to Melody by stopping the traffic.

After the prayers, they raised slogans glorifying jihad and martyrdom, while the female students present in the mosque responded to the slogans.

However, both the female and the male supporters dispersed after police started moving in their direction.

While criticizing the move, official chairman of the mosque committee Chaudhary Abdul Sattar, said one could not block traffic when the mosque along with open space was available for prayers.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2020