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| Ghazi has not left basement for three days, says student |
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Monday, July 09, 2007
ISLAMABAD: Abdul Rashid Ghazi has not left the basement of Lal Masjid for the last three days after his elder brother was arrested while fleeing wearing a Burqa.
There are a number of versions regarding the situation prevailing in the basement of Lal Masjid. Shehzad, a student of Lal Masjid, told this correspondent late on Saturday night that Abdul Rashid Ghazi was in the basement of the Lal Masjid with more than 50 disciples. He said that Ghazi never came up on the floor of the Lal Masjid for fear of the intense firing. “Students are sent upstairs for different tasks. Every student has to go upstairs on his turn,” Shehzad added.
“Those who were assigned the task of responding to the fire from the forces outside are present in the main hall and adjacent rooms of the mosque with heavy weapons. They sleep in the hall and remain in contact with Abdul Rashid Ghazi on wireless,” said Shehzad.
Shehzad further said that Ghazi remained busy on the phone discussing the situation with his well-wishers in the city on Saturday. Shehzad disclosed that when the students discussed the situation with Ghazi he looked confident and showed no signs of fear.
However, according to Shehzad, fear was writ large on the faces of the students while they discussed the anti-Lal Masjid operation with one another. Shehzad was of view that such students were the real hurdle to the settlement of the crisis. He further said that some senior students used to recite verses of the Holy Quran and gave ‘Dars’ at regular intervals.
He said that they had enough food. However, they were facing a shortage of water. He said that students had started using rain water for drinking purposes. He said that some of the students termed the rain as a result of their prayers.
When asked about the statement of Jawad Ahmad, a 14-year old boy on the state-owned television, that there were bombs in the Lal Masjid, he replied that neither he had seen the boy in the mosque nor did he know about any bomb in the mosque.
When asked about the presence of some foreign terrorists in the mosque, Shehzad rejected the claim. He said that he knew every corner of the mosque. Brig Raza Muhammad, COS headquarters 10 Corps, who took part in the Lal Masjid operation, when contacted by The News to give some clue about the situation in the basement of Lal Masjid, said that Abdul Rashid Ghazi was present in the basement and he did not know anything else.
Brig Asim Bajwa, Commander 111 Brigade, commanding the Lal Masjid operation, when contacted by The News on his mobile said that he couldn’t give any information about the basement of Lal Masjid.
“You had better contact DG-ISPR in this regard”, he said. An officer told The News in the evening that the final round of the operation is expected tonight (Sunday night). (Name of the student is changed for his safety in Lal Masjid). — Ahmad Noorani
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ISSN 1563-9479 
