Radical Lal Mosque gets active again, abducts four policemen

Islamabad, May 19 (UNI) The Taliban-styled squad of the radical Lal Masjid has abducted four policemen for allegedly spying for the Pakistan government.

The four policemen were abducted late last night amid fears of a crackdown against the mosque. Its chief prayer leader Maulana Abdul Aziz, who established the so-called Shariat court in April, had announced to carry out suicide attacks against the government.

According to the mosque's deputy cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the plain clothed policemen were outside the mosque on a 'spying mission'.

''We had already advised the local administration not to carry out such acts which could aggravate the situation but it chose to ignore our warnings,'' he said.

Senior police officials today said there was no headway in the ongoing negotiations between the local authorities and mosque administration to secure release of the policemen.

The mosque and its batonweilding male and female students hit headlines in March, after they threatened the video/CD shop owners and brothels to shut their "un-Islamic business" in the local markets.

Meanwhile, the Dawn newspaper reported that Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah and senior security officials held a meeting with the clercis late last night and put all security agencies on high alert.

Local administration moved to increase the number of security personnel deployed around the mosque following the incident and tried to negotiate the release of the abducted policemen.

The Lal masjid administration abducted the policemen after they complained of government's failure to release 11 of their colleagues, who had been arrested earlier.

In his Friday sermon, in-charge of the Lal Masjid Maulana Abdul Aziz again threatened the government of suicide attacks across the county if any operation was conducted against the mosque administration.

UNI