Reports: Radical clerics set to free kidnapped police in Islamabad
ABC Radio Australia writes that the chief of Islamabad's Lal Masjid mosque, or Red Mosque, said that the clerics would soon release the
Pakistani policemen. Bloomberg reports that Pakistani officials said that the policemen have already been
"The Red Mosque clerics have released all the policemen they had taken hostage from outside their seminaries," Tariq Azeem, the junior minister for information and broadcasting, said in a telephone interview today. "There was no need for use of force."
Security forces were withdrawn from around the mosque known as the Lal Masjid, he said. Students and clerics had held two police officers at the seminary since May 18.
The policemen's release defuses a potentially violent
Voice of America reports that the four policemen were seized
Its top clerics have vowed to impose Taleban-style Sharia law in the capital and have threatened massive suicide bomb attacks if the government tries to interfere.
Students from the mosque's religious seminaries swept through one of Islamabad's main market areas last month, warning shop owners against selling music or movies.
Hundreds of students have also been occupying a nearby children's library since January to protest government efforts to demolish several mosques illegally built on government property.
The clerics released two of the four
The BBC reports that another trio of policemen were briefly
The BBC's correspondent says that the two Red Mosque-associated kidnappings are "another serious challenge to President [Pervez] Musharraf's authority." But others say that the ongoing conflict between the mosque's clerics and Mr. Musharraf are actually a boost to Musharraf's regime by distracting the Pakistani public from the ongoing controversy over his ouster of Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar
Stratfor writes, "However, this standoff has been going on since February – so why opt for an iron-hand approach now? The answer has to do with the much larger – stemming from the March 9 suspension of Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry – which is growing with the passage of time. By moving to resolve the standoff with the militant mullahs in Islamabad, the government could divert attention from the legal crisis, giving itself a breather. Moreover, the government is hoping the move will go over well with the public, because there is broad public support for cracking down against the Talibanising forces."
The Daily Times also reports that members of Musharraf's political opposition go even further, accusing Musharraf and the mosque clerics of being in cahoots and manufacturing the
The New York Times reports, however, that members of Musharraf's own party are advocating that he
"There are two ways he can go: retreat to the bunker or stop, pause, review, reflect and reverse course," said one ruling party member who did not want to be identified. "He has to show leadership, magnanimity, and be loyal to the broader objective. The important thing is Pakistan's future."
