10,000 suicide bombers on the mosque premises in Pakistan

Pakistan's Lal Masjid, where a standoff between the mosque administration and the local police continues for over a fortnight now, has more than 10,000 suicide bombers on the mosque premises, the Khateeb of the mosque, Maulana Abdul Aziz, has claimed.

The police and the Lal Masjid administration have been negotiating a trade-off ever since the Taliban 'on duty' in and around the Jamia Hafsa and Lal Masjid abducted four Islamabad police officials on May 19.

"The suicide attackers are ready to operate anywhere/anytime in Pakistan," Maulana Abdul Aziz told a press briefing at the Lal Masjid. He also claimed that it has more than one lakh suicide attackers across Pakistan.

"We consider suicide attacks are right in Pakistan in a few circumstances, while we consider them as absolutely justified in the context of Afghanistan and Iraq," Pakistan's News International quoted Abdul Aziz as saying.

"Our students enjoy the moments when a police or Rangers operation looms, and they get bored when the situation normalises," he said of the situation inside Lal Masjid. "We favoured the Taliban not only in the past, we favour them even today," he said

Refuting a general perception that the Musharraf regime and those running the affairs of the Lal Masjid were actually making fool of the people, the Maulana said: "We are not operating under the command of any intelligence agency.

Responding to a question that the strategy adopted by the Lal Masjid administration to solve different problems was helping Musharraf’s agenda to bring liberalism in the country and that analysts think that the clerics were operating on the direction of agencies and basically helping the regime to achieve its agenda, he said it was totally wrong.

“We are not operating under the command of some agency, and I am ready for ‘Mubahela’ in this regard,” he added. He said the Musharraf government was not taking any advantage to fulfil its agendas from the actions of the Lal Masjid.