ISLAMABAD, July 27: The Lal Masjid and its surrounding areas witnessed pitched battles between security forces and supporters of Maulana Abdul Aziz, former chief cleric of the mosque, after worshipers refused to offer Friday prayers behind a government-appointed imam.

The protesters, many of them students of Jamia Fareedia, repainted the walls of the mosque red, which had been turned beige on the orders of the authorities.

Just before prayers hundreds of supporters of Maulana Aziz sprang into action, slipped into the mosque and reoccupied it for hours, exposing the capability of all intelligence agencies and security departments as they failed to foresee the reaction from the worshipers who were angry over the reported killing of their friends and colleagues in a recent military operation.

The battle between worshipers and security forces has raised questions over whether prayers could be offered in the mosque in future.

The efforts of the government and the local administration to normalise the situation in Sector G-6 by completely lifting curfew and appointing Maulana Muhammad Ashfaq as the official imam of the mosque proved futile as the area people and other supporters of the defunct administration of Lal Masjid asked the local authorities to bring back Maulana Abdul Aziz to the mosque for leading the Friday prayers.

“We were expecting a slight reaction of the people but what happened was beyond our expectations,” a senior official of the local administration said.