Thursday, July 5, 2007

Net closes on mosque - and Pakistan

By Syed Saleem Shahzad
Asia Times

"A three-day siege of the radical Red Mosque in Islamabad is coming down to a bitter end game between diehard militants holed up inside and the encircling security forces. The fallout from the clash, though, is turning scores of thousands of jihadis against the Pakistani establishment that once nurtured them.....

Recent estimates suggest there are as many as 200,000 Pakistani jihadis, mostly in bases in the Waziristans, NWFP and southwestern Balochistan. Their mission is to join the insurgency in Afghanistan to fight against the foreign occupiers there. The attack on Lal Masjid could give them new targets in their own country. "

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