Lal Masjid Commission: Attorney wants to quiz Musharraf on operation
Says investigation wont be complete otherwise.
Says investigation wont be complete otherwise. ILLUSTRATION: ANAM HALEEM
ISLAMABAD:
The counsel representing Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) has demanded the commission probing the Lal Masjid operation on Supreme Court’s directions to summon former president Pervez Musharraf to question him on the operation.
A full scale military operation against the Red Mosque was carried out in July 2007 under the Musharraf regime that left scores of seminary students dead.
“A video conference can be arranged if Musharraf cannot appear physically before the commission,” said Advocate Tariq Asad representing Lal Masjid in the commission. The one-man commission comprising Federal Shariah Court (FSC) judge Shehzadul Sheikh has denied that Musharraf was already summoned by the commission and recorded his statement.
Asad, the counsel for Lal Masjid, said Musharraf’s statement in the case carried vital importance without which the investigation would remain incomplete. He added that the commission needed to summon him sooner than later.
Earlier, two daughters of mosque’s chief cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz recorded their statements before the commission which were made part of the earlier record of statements submitted by mosque’s students.
Sources said over three hundred students of the mosque who had surrendered before the final operation had recorded their statements with the commission. They informed the judge about the number of students stranded in the mosque compound before the final operation in which the government claimed only 103 people were killed.
The government in its report submitted to the Supreme Court maintained that all those killed were combatants and they fought the security forces where they lost their lives.
Sources said the majority of students in their statements maintained the same stance where they said most of the students, males and females, had left the mosque before the final military operation.
Lal Masjid’s counsel Asad said the curator of Jamiya Faridiya madresseh in sector E-7 Maulana Abdul Ghaffar was stopping students from making statements with the commission.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 5th, 2013.
The counsel representing Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) has demanded the commission probing the Lal Masjid operation on Supreme Court’s directions to summon former president Pervez Musharraf to question him on the operation.
A full scale military operation against the Red Mosque was carried out in July 2007 under the Musharraf regime that left scores of seminary students dead.
“A video conference can be arranged if Musharraf cannot appear physically before the commission,” said Advocate Tariq Asad representing Lal Masjid in the commission. The one-man commission comprising Federal Shariah Court (FSC) judge Shehzadul Sheikh has denied that Musharraf was already summoned by the commission and recorded his statement.
Asad, the counsel for Lal Masjid, said Musharraf’s statement in the case carried vital importance without which the investigation would remain incomplete. He added that the commission needed to summon him sooner than later.
Earlier, two daughters of mosque’s chief cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz recorded their statements before the commission which were made part of the earlier record of statements submitted by mosque’s students.
Sources said over three hundred students of the mosque who had surrendered before the final operation had recorded their statements with the commission. They informed the judge about the number of students stranded in the mosque compound before the final operation in which the government claimed only 103 people were killed.
The government in its report submitted to the Supreme Court maintained that all those killed were combatants and they fought the security forces where they lost their lives.
Sources said the majority of students in their statements maintained the same stance where they said most of the students, males and females, had left the mosque before the final military operation.
Lal Masjid’s counsel Asad said the curator of Jamiya Faridiya madresseh in sector E-7 Maulana Abdul Ghaffar was stopping students from making statements with the commission.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 5th, 2013.