Cleric Aziz of Red Mosque likely to get land to build seminary

The Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) on Sunday bowed down before a hardliner controversial cleric Abdul Aziz of Red Mosque and assured him to allot 20-kanal land for building seminary girls. The cleric, who had gone underground for some years after 2007 military operation in 2007, became active once again and resorted to threatening the administration for not allowing him to rebuild Jamia Hafsa on the state land.

The hide and seek between police and the seminary students was a routine matter for the last few years, but on Sunday, the ICT administration, finally bowed down by agreeing to allot 20-kanal land to cleric to build Jamai Hafsa.

The government had also replaced the cleric Aziz with another preacher in wake of 2007 operation, but from day-one, however, the cleric managed to intimidate all his successors to leave, as he wanted to continue occupying the mosque.

The cleric is also present inside the mosque and delivers Friday sermons despite ban on him by the government. After the ICT admin agreed to allot 20-kanal lands to for a girl's seminary, which was demolished in 2007 operation, the sources said, the cleric has agreed to leave the mosque.

A tense environment prevailed over the weekend near the capital's state-owned mosque, as supporters of the cleric kept chanting anti-state slogans amidst presence of a heavy police contingent.

The cleric remains holed up inside the mosque along with several female students. Police have cordoned off the area by placing barriers and barbed wires on the roads around the mosque.

In an apparent bid to garner support, Maulana Aziz reached out to seminaries of Deobandi school of thought in Islamabad. Three major seminaries of the Deobandi school of thought - Jamia Fareedia, Jamia Rasheedia and Jamia Muhammadia - declined Maulana Aziz's request to send their students either to hold a protest against the blockade of Lal Masjid or to offer prayers on the main road outside the mosque.

Maulana Zahoor Alvi, the principal of Jamia Muhammadia and the head of Wafaqul Madaris Al Arabia's Islamabad chapter, also refused to be part of the group of individual clerics who wanted to meet both sides.

Explaining Maulana Zahoor's stance, his son Maulana Tanvir Alvi said: "It is a clear policy of Wafaq that students should be learners and not activists or politicians."

Maulana Zahoor's decision did not sit well with the deposed Lal Masjid cleric, who said that "the standards [of the Wafaqul Madaris Al Arabia] were different when Maulana Fazalur Rahman launched his political drive and the students were seen actively participating in his dharna".

Maulana Aziz had returned to Lal Masjid around two weeks ago, reiterating his claim to be its prayer leader. The situation, however, turned serious on Thursday night when over a hundred female students entered the Jamia Hafsa in Islamabad's Sector H-11 by breaking its official seal.

As a result, officers from the capital administration approached Lal Masjid to meet Maulana Aziz. But talks remained inconclusive as the cleric insisted that a senior authority equivalent to a federal minister should negotiate with him.

On Saturday, in a bid to end the standoff, the proscribed Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) volunteered to play a role and met officials outside the state-run mosque, while security personnel met the Islamabad administration officials to defuse the situation.

A delegation of ASWJ, led by its Islamabad president Hafeez Nazeer, came to Lal Masjid on Saturday and met the officers posted outside. The delegation assured the assistant commissioner of their support and cooperation for a peaceful solution to the standoff.

None of the sides seemed to back off from their positions as the followers of Maulana Aziz and the administration enhanced their strict posture possibly in a show of strength.