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| Suicide bomber strikes near Lal Masjid, 12 killed | | |
ISLAMABAD, JULY 27 (PTI)
Violence marred the reopening of the Lal Masjid here with a suicide bomber blowing himself among a group of policemen near the mosque, killing 12 people and hundreds of radical students briefly recapturing the complex, the scene of a recent bloody military swoop to flush out extremists.
The suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body near a group of policemen standing near a hotel, 200 yards from the Lal Masjid.
"It was a suicide attack," Islamabad Deputy Commissioner of Police Chowdhry Mehmood Ali said.
Seven policemen were among the 12 killed while 39 others were injured in the blast.
The blast took place as an unruly group of radical students fought pitched battles with over 1500 policemen to take control of the mosque.
The siege began early noon when the renovated mosque painted in peach and white colours opened for Friday prayers. It went on till the blast took place at 1730 hrs at the close by busy Abpara market.
The militant students, who entered the mosque on the pretext of offering prayers, immediately began taking control of it and started painting it red.
Their first target was the newly appointed moderate cleric, Muhammad Ashfaq Madni.
Feverishly shouting slogans hailing jihad and the Ghazi brothers, the students manhandled Madni and virtually pushed him out of the mosque well before the moderate cleric geared up to hold Friday prayers.
The students demanded the return of the pro-Taliban cleric Abdul Aziz to lead the prayers.
The crowd prevented Jamat-e-Islami leader Liaqat Baloch from offering prayers. Baloch, whose party chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed threatened to force his way into the mosque if it was not opened for prayers today was escorted out.
Soon the mosque came under the control of the radical students who insisted that Aziz, the head cleric who was caught while trying to flee in a burqa during the military siege of the mosque, be brought to deliver the sermon.
Aziz is currently being tried by an anti-terrorism court on various charges including abduction of Chinese nationals.
Some burqa-clad girls, who were released from the demolished girls madrassa attached to the mosque, arrived on the scene to deliver fiery speeches calling for jihad.
Some enraged students even targeted newsmen, specially TV camera crews alleging that they played a partisan role during the capture of Lal Masjid a fortnight ago.
As soon as the they took control of the mosque, dozens of students suddenly began repainting the mosque with red colour, erasing the peach and white colour painted by authorities.
They also removed the name boards changing the mosque's name from Lal Masjid to Markazi Jamia Masjid.
Soon Lal Masjid was written all over the mosque.
However, the blast which cause extensive casualties and damage, helped end the nearly six-hour siege of the mosque as hundreds of youth, who had taken firm control of it, rushed out of the complex on hearing the deafening noise.
As the youth moved out, policemen took control of the mosque, which by then was nearly painted red.
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