Radical students protest at Pakistan's Red Mosque

ISLAMABAD, July 27 (Reuters) Hundreds of radical Islamists protested in Islamabad's Red Mosque today, spoiling Pakistani government plans to resume normal prayers at the complex after a deadly commando raid this month.

Pakistani security forces laid siege to the sprawling Lal Masjid or Red Mosque complex on July 3, before launching a full-scale assault a week later after followers of clerics running a Taliban-style movement from there refused to surrender.

The government said 102 people were killed in the taking of the compound.

The government of President Pervez Musharraf closed off the bullet-riddled and explosion-scorched complex and renovated it before formally reopening it for prayers yesterday.

However, today, the most important prayer day of the week, scores of bearded supporters of the radical clerics entered the mosque and refused to allow a new government-appointed cleric to lead prayers.

The mosque's firebrand cleric before the siege, Maulana Abdul Aziz, was caught fleeing disguised as a woman after troops had surrounded the complex, while his younger brother and deputy, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, was killed in the assault.

Chanting slogans of ''Ghazi, your blood will spark revolution'' and ''Musharraf is a killer'', today's protesters forced the newly appointed imam to leave the compound.

About two dozen climbed to the mosque's rooftop and raised a black flag inscribed with Kalma -- the Muslim expression of faith.

''If jihad is terrorism then this terrorism will stay forever,'' said protester Ghulam Mustafa.

Stave-wielding young protesters also threw rocks at a passing armoured vehicle.

The protesters, some crying, also manhandled Islamist parliamentarians who tried to enter the mosque.

Some protesters brushed red paint and inscribed ''Lal Masjid'' on the mosque walls, which had been coloured cream and white by authorities during the renovation.

The mosque's original red bricks gave the complex its names.

Armed police stood by on the road and did not interfere with the protesters.

''We hope they will thin out after few hours. They can't do it for long because they are unarmed,'' said Zafar Iqbal, Senior Superintendent of Police.

''But we will take action if they create any unpleasant situation.'' Lal Masjid had long been known as an Islamic radicals' stronghold, but hit international headlines this year when burqa-clad female students of a madrasa in the complex along with male supporters of the clerics launched an aggressive campaign to impose Taliban-style religious culture in Islamabad.

They kidnapped women they accused of involvement in prostitution, abducted police and attacked music shops.

They also seized a government library adjacent to the complex to press for their demands for reconstruction of mosques demolished by authorities for being built illegally.

REUTERS GT RN1643