A Year On, Red Mosque Still "Red"

"Your eyes may not see the bloodstains, but your heart feels it," Rehman said. (Reuters)

"Whenever I go to offer prayers in the mosque, I feel an invisible fear," Abdul Rehman, an old resident of the mosque's area, told IslamOnline.net.

"It seems as if something is there, but you can't see it. You can only feel it."

Pakistani troops surrounded the Red Mosque, known as Lal Masjid, and two affiliates, Jamia Faridia and Jamia Hafsa, on July 3, 2007, taking on the mosque's leaders who were holing inside along with hundreds of followers.

The siege was spurred after tension over an increasingly violent anti-vice campaign led by the mosque's administrators and boiled over into gun battles.

The troops stormed the mosque one week later, in an operation that has killed 103 people including the Mosque deputy leader Maulana Abdul Rasheed Ghazi.

Independent sources affirm that the operation killed many women and children, who were inside the mosque during the military assault.

Rehman, who has been offering prayers at Red Mosque for last 15 years, says images of the dead and the bloodshed haunted him for a long time.

"I could not sleep for many nights after the operation. Whenever I closed my eyes, those pictures would appear before me.

"I don't know whether those who perpetrated this brutality can sleep or not."

And although the government has changed the mosque's color from red to green following the deadly operation, Rehman still feels the Mosque bears the color red.

"Your eyes may not see the bloodstains, but your heart feels it."

Fahad Hussein, a computer engineer working at an Islamabad-based private company, also says that the stench of death has settled in his mind.

"Though a year has passed, it seems as if it just happened yesterday," he said.

"I don't think that I will get rid of the bitter memories."

Justice Unserved

Like other attendants of the mosque, Sabohi Khanum also feels the deadly assault still reverberate.

"The people still feel the screams of Red Mosque students," Khanum, who is a bachelor student at a local college, said.

"The charred bodies of innocent children and women are still in front of their eyes."

But for Khanum, memory of the Red Mosque's dead will keep haunting the society until justice for their souls is served.

"These souls are crying for justice and only justice."

The government claims that 103 people, including 12 soldiers, were killed in the Red Mosque.

However, independent circles contend that the number of the dead is between 1500 and 2000.

A fact-finding mission report issued by Jammat-e-Islami, the country's largest Islamic party, says that over 4000 people were killed in the operation dubbed as "operation silence".

According to media reports, all kinds of heavy weapons, including chemical and phosphorous bombs, were used in the assault.

Khanum believes that until those responsible for what happened in the Red Mosque are brought to justice, there would be Red Mosques every where.

"All the characters involved in the Red Mosque operation are still on their posts, which compels the aggrieved people to think that they can get justice by avenging only," she said.

"All those, including Pervez Musharraf must be brought to justice; otherwise… the phenomenon of suicide bombings will never come to an end."

Last Sunday, a suicide bombing was carried out just several hundred meters from the site of a rally marking one year since the Red Mosque assault.

The bombing has killed at least 20 people - mostly police - near a police station.

Fahad, the computer engineer, believes many sectors in the society have helped perpetuators to escape justice.

"It was the duty of the civil society to hold the hand of perpetrators, but we all remained silent and turned a blind eye," he lamented.

"Except one or two, all the religious parties played the role of a silent spectator.

"They hold million marches for their political motives, why didn't they hold a million marches for the Red Mosque victims."

Stained Politics  

"That gruesome operation has not only changed the country's politics, but fanned the anti-US sentiments to a large extent," Mir believes.

Experts and politicians believe that the bloodbath at the Red Mosque also hanged like a grim shadow over Pakistan's fractured politics.

"That gruesome operation has not only changed the country's politics, but fanned the anti-US sentiments to a large extent," Sajjad Mir, a Karachi-based political analyst, told IOL.

Mir affirms that the Red Mosque cost candidates loyal to President Musharraf dearly in past February's parliamentary elections.

"The brutalities committed have forced the civil society and even left-wing people to condemn the government.

"The people of Pakistan simply rejected them."

Ayaz Amir, a senior columnist and a member of the National Assembly, witnessed the profound impact of the Red Mosque.

"Before the February 18 elections, I had no idea the Red Mosque issue would play such a big role in the defeat of pro-Musharraf parties. But when I went on the streets during my election campaign, I realized that the people were about to burst out."

Amir, who is now MP for the northeastern city of Chakwal, believes the Red Mosque was the fatal mistake of Musharraf and his allies that cost them dearly.

"It opened the eyes of the people of Pakistan," he said.

Mir, the political analyst, concurs.

He added that the government has in vain tried to change the mosque's red color with green in a bid to get rid of the bloody operation's grim reminder.

"You cannot wipe out the memories by changing the color."