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| India-Pakistan |
| Jamia Hafsa used as fortified compound, says Aftab Sherpao |
| 2007-07-13 |
| Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said on Thursday Jamia Hafsa had been used as an armoured compound for terrorist activities, according to reports by various agencies. The minister, along with Interior Secretary Kamal Shah, visited Jamia Hafsa and Lal Masjid and reviewed different parts of the building. Security officials informed Sherpao about the cleanup operations in which the compound was cleared of weapons. Sherpao said two suicide belts carrying the fingerprints of Abdul Rashid Ghazi had been recovered. The minister said foreign militants had been using the madrassa. Sherpao said the government was considering razing Jamia Hafsa if structural experts deemed it unsalvageable. Lal Masjid was not heavily damaged and it will be repaired after consultation with architects, he added. He said that no operation was planned against any other madrassa. Meanwhile, a private TV channel reported that security forces seized several important documents and computers from the Jamia Hafsa compound and found the bodies of four students, including two women. Irfan Ghauri adds: Authorities on Thursday arranged a visit of media persons to the Lal Masjid complex where the visiting journalists saw the weapons used by the militants and the badly damaged Jamia Hafsa. The visit that was arranged after the culmination of the operation to sweep the building of unexploded ordnance could not clear up the ambiguity regarding the death toll. The weapons put on display included hand grenades, seven machine guns, 20 kalashnikov rifles, sten guns, RPGs, improvised rockets, anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, improvised explosive devices, pistols, hundreds of bullets, gas masks, two suicide jackets and some wireless sets. The authorities also displayed CDs with titles of jihadi poems and literature, speeches of Abdul Aziz and nine Pakistani passports. The other room the media were led to contained discarded computer monitors and recording equipment that the authorities claimed was “communication equipment”. The pungent odour of decomposed bodies surrounded the compound, whose three-storey building had no room without bullet-riddled walls and roofs. Some of the rooms and libraries were partially burnt, but the books placed on the stools and racks were completely undamaged. ISPR DG Maj Gen Waheed Arshad said the security forces had not found any tunnel in the mosque complex. He said that no foreign militant had yet been identified from among the bodies found from the complex and from those captured during the operation. Arshad said that no woman had been killed in the operation and the security forces had not found any mass grave in the compound. Arshad said that 75 bodies had been recovered from the complex. “Out of these 19 bodies are beyond recognition and they could be anybody, any gender, any age.” Meanwhile, officials said the body of Abdul Aziz’s son Hasaam had been identified. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Missed our chance to really test out the B52/JDAM combo. Say 16 250-lb JDAMS in an rectangular array, spaced 10 meters apart, time on target. It would really impress the natives when the whole place just vaporized, *poof*... |
| Posted by: mojo 2007-07-13 10:42 |
| #1 The Jimmy Hoffa compound ? There's prolly more bodies inside the concrete footings. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2007-07-13 09:38 |