The Lal Masjid administration on Tuesday withdrew its decision to suspend talks with the government and announced that they had resumed negotiations to try and find a peaceful end to the standoff in the capital.Lal Masjid chief cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz on Monday announced the suspension of the talks after two army helicopters flew over the mosque and adjacent Jamia Hafsa madrassa, took pictures of unveiled girl students and sprayed a gas on them that caused suffocation. He saw the incident as a prelude to a crackdown on the mosque and its two madrassas.
However, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, Aziz’s brother and deputy, told Daily Times on Tuesday: “We hope the talks will move forward in the right direction. I request Chaudhry Shujaat to institute an inquiry into the helicopter surveillance flights and spray of chemical gas on Jamia Hafsa.”
After the announcement that talks were back on, a committee, comprising clerics Maulana Nazir Faroqee and Maulana Zahoor Alvi chosen by Ghazi, along with Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Chaudhry Muhammad Ali, Capital Development Authority (CDA) Member (Planning) Nusratullah, Auqaf Department Deputy Director Malik Afsar and a representative of PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, visited the demolished Al-Safa Mosque in I-8 and met with the prayer leader of the mosque.