[DAWN] Lawyer and activist Jibran Nasir, one of the main organisers behind the Lal Masjid...literally the
Red Mosque, located in Islamabad and frequented by all sorts of high govt officials. The proprietors, Ghazi Abdul Rasheed and Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi, unleashed their Islamic storm troopers on the city, shutting down whorehouses and beating people up who weren't devout enough. The Musharraf govt put an end to the nonsense by besieging the place. Abdul Aziz Ghazi was nabbed while he was trying to escape dressed up like a girl. BBC reported that the corpse count at 173, but other claims, usually hysterical, say there were up to 1000 titzup. Among their number was Abdul Rashid Ghazi. Everyone then said tut-tut and what a nice guy he had been...
protests in Islamabad, on Monday received a threatening phone call from an individual claiming to be Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain Jamaatul Ahrar
...A Pak Taliban
splintergroup that split off from the Mullah Fazlullah faction because it wasn't violent enough...
's front man.
A man claiming to be Ehsanullah Ehsan
...formerly the front man for the Pak Taliban, now the lips and tongue of the Jamaatul Ahrar splinter group in Mohmand Agency...
asked Nasir to end the protests, or "be ready for consequences".
Nasir however remained defiant and determined to continue the protest, despite the threat.
"We've told him we are standing firm," the activist said on social media.
Nasir shared a recording of the telephone conversation with local daily The Express Tribune, which was made accessible online. According to the audio recording, a man claiming to be Ehsanullah Ehsan told Jibran Nasir that by continuing with the protests against Lal Masjid, both Nasir and the demonstrators were putting themselves in danger. The caller further said that Jamaatul Ahrar should not be considered weak/unable to act.
Jibran Nasir maintained that until and unless the mosque begins to spread the message of peace he would continue to stand against Lal Masjid's administration.
While speaking to Dawn.com, Jibran Nasir reiterated: "We will not call off the protest".
The first protest against the Lal Masjid administration took place on Thursday evening when a large number of civil society activists, politicians and students arrived at the mosque chanting slogans against its chief holy man Maulana Abdul Aziz
...nutball holy man who runs the Lal Masjid in the heart of Pakistain's capital. After instigating a rebellion against the state in 2007, he was caught trying to sneak away dressed in a burka. He rejects democracy as un-Islamic, which it probably is...
and lighting candles as part of a vigil for the victims of the siege of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
's Army Public School.
The activists had come out in response to a statement by Maulana Aziz in which he had refused to condemn the massacre of students and teachers in Peshawar.
However,
nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits...
when the protests did not stop for a third day, to ease the pressure on the mosque's administration, the deputy khateeb of Lal Masjid along with representatives of the federation of seminaries joined the civil society activists to condemn the massacre.
Maulana Aziz had however threatened the protesters with dire consequences on the second day of the demonstrations, following which, the police had registered cases against both sides.