A large number of Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Faridia students along with political and civil society activists on Friday here staged a protest demonstration outside Lal Masjid against "Operation Silence" launched by the military commandos against the seminaries students on July 3, 2007.
After Friday congregation, the protestors including female students of Jamia Hafsa clad in traditional black veils gathered outside the mosque to start the "Lal Masjid Week", which aims at paying tributes to those who were killed in the operation.
Khalid Khwaja, Chief Coordinator, Defence for Human Rights, led the demonstrators who were raising slogans in favour of martyrs of Lal Masjid and calling for the release of Maulana Abdul Aziz, former chief cleric of the mosque. They demanded of the new government to make sure the reconstruction of Jamia Hafsa to give religious education to girls. They also sought proper investigation into the Lal Masjid operation to bring the facts to the fore.
They said the previous government carried out the operation against the innocent students of Lal Masjid to please America and divert public attention from judicial crisis and other issues the country was confronted with at that time.
Addressing the demonstrators, Khalid Khwaja said that protest rallies and demonstrations would be arranged during the Lal Masjid Week as it was a best way to pay homage to the martyrs who laid down their lives resisting the suppression. It may be recalled that the "Operation Silence" was launched by Commandos of Pakistan Army against the male and female students hiding in Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa Complex on July 3, 2007. Failure of negotiations between the then government and alleged militants led to bloody massacre on July 11, 2007.
More than 12,000 Army personnel and commandos along with the Rangers carried out the operation against the besieged male and female students numbering about 1,300. The government confirmed the killing of 154 people in the operation while the number being claimed by people was in hundreds.