According to Khalil, former president Pervez Musharraf had decided to use force against the inmates of the Lal Masjid, talks were merely a cosmetic measure. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
Ansarul Ummah (AU) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil on Tuesday told a one-man judicial commission on the Lal Masjid incident that the operation had been pre-planned.
According to Khalil, former president Pervez Musharraf had decided to use force against the inmates of the Lal Masjid, and sending a team for talks with mosque clerics was merely a cosmetic measure.
During the operation, it was Khalil who was delegated authority to hold talks with the government on behalf of deputy cleric Abdur Rashid Ghazi during the operation.
“Ghazi wanted to settle the issue peacefully through talks. I had managed to bring him around and agree on the government’s demands but Musharraf had already planned the operation,” Khalil told the commission headed by Justice Shehzad Sheikh of Federal Shariat Court in his written and verbal statement.
Ghazi died inside the mosque’s compound, along with dozens of others, on July 10, 2007. The government’s negotiation team, headed by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, and the mosque’s delegation had met and agreed upon a five-point agenda for ending the conflict. However, the official delegation left at the last minute to get the agreement approved by Musharraf.
“Musharraf rejected the agreement altogether and imposed new conditions that included the surrender of 30, not five, Lal Masjid men. I managed to convince Maulana Ghazi on that, too,” Khalil said. “But just when we were holding talks, the security forces stormed the mosque.” He said it was Musharraf’s ‘hard-headedness’ that caused the catastrophe.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 20th, 2013.
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The Commission should also investigate as to whether napalm bombs or other chemical weapons were used in the Lal Masjid operation. At the time, sections of the press alleged that many inmates, according to some estimates, more than a hundred, including women, were killed but all remains could not be recovered as many were burnt to ashes and even the debris was cleared before the press was let in to investigate.
Taking law into one's own hand cannot be condoned. What was common between the Lal Majid leaders and students and Musharraf was that both were guilty of taking law into their hands and confronting the state, defying its writ. But Musharraf came to power by not only taking law into his own hands, not only challenging the writ of the Government but by also violating and subverting the Constitution, thereby committing acts of high treason. The Supreme Court has a responsibility to bring Musharraf to justice.
Musharraf usurped power to implement his vision, which was influenced by Mustafa Kamal Atta Turk. It was a different situation in Pakistan but Musharraf failed to realize it. Instead of fighting his ideological opponents through argument, education, and propagation through media, he used strong armed methods with wide ranging repercussions. The offshoots of his doings resulted in increased militant activity and a further divisiveness, which is ruining Pakistan. He was a very short-sighted ruler who subverted democracy with adverse and telling consequences for the nation. He should appear before courts to clear his name if he is actually innocent. But he dares not. Why?
Musharraf is well known for back stabbing even inside his own country.. One side he sent team for negotiation and from backdoor he sent army..
Musharraf was truly a hero
Musharraf was a hero!! We stand by you.