ISLAMABAD: Lal Masjid rejected the Jamaat Ul-Ahrar’s statement in a bid to disassociate itself from the ‘Operation Ghazi’, which was launched by the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban faction to avenge the killing of Maulana Abdul Rasheed Ghazi for their terror strike campaigns.
Haroon Rasheed Ghazi further said the country has faced a wave of unrest since the 2007 Lal Masjid operation because of international powers, as similar destabilisation has been witnessed in other Muslim countries.
Mr Ghazi’s statement comes a day after another release from the banned organisation, which stated that it understood the pressure facing the Shuhada Foundation and Mr Aziz’s family. It also released a video of Ghazi called for resistance against state institutions. He blamed United States and local politicians for the problems.
The spokesperson denied that any law enforcement officials have approached Lal Masjid or Mr Aziz’s relatives, but a security analyst said there has been considerable pressure the Lal Masjid administration and the family of Mr Aziz and his deceased brother because of the terrorist faction’s announcement and the Civil society’s opposition adds to it.
In another statement, Lal Masjid has questioned the transparency of the operation that killed over 100 ‘terrorists’ after the Sehwan Sharif incident where the names and details of the deceased be made public, and asked: “Under which law were these people declared terrorists and then eliminated through extrajudicial killings?”
“The nation would like to know the reasons for these killings. First all the terrorists were able to kill innocent people and then the security forces resorted to extrajudicial killings,” it said.
“There is a need to counter terrorism but it should be within the ambit of the law.”
