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Mullah warns Musharraf of Taliban rise

ISLAMABAD: Ghazi Abdul Rashid, deputy prayer leader of Lal Masjid, has warned President Pervez Musharraf that a Taliban-style opposition movement is emerging to challenge his already crisis-hit regime.

Ghazi said his followers backed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and predicted the political upheaval would further the students’ goal of a pure Islamic state. “If the government tries to suppress the change that our movement is demanding, then there is a likelihood of Talibanisation,” the 43-year-old Ghazi said. “I can see it happening.”

“We are not only challenging Musharraf, we are challenging the system,” Ghazi told AFP on Wednesday, speaking inside the Jamia Hafsa madrassa next to the mosque. Bearded men with Kalashnikov rifles stood guard during the interview.

“The country’s system has totally failed and needs to be changed because it is not giving any relief to 99 percent of the people,” he added. “We know that if Musharraf goes away, another Musharraf would come. The system we want is Islamic.” Ghazi said the students empathised with Chaudhry. “We have sympathy for the chief justice’s plight, which is because of the system that has allowed Musharraf to do this kind of thing,” said Ghazi. “The man who is meant to give justice to the people is begging for justice himself.” “Pakistan has become more secular since when my father was a cleric at the Lal Masjid,” he said. “This is our reaction. We want to go back.” afp

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