Protests in Pakistan over Lal Masjid operation

ISLAMABAD: Protest rallies were held across Pakistan on Friday, with Islamist demonstrators giving calls for 'holy war' and terming President Pervez Musharraf a 'killer' for ordering this week's bloody crackdown on the Lal Masjid.

In the capital, Islamist alliance Muthahida Majlis-e-Amal and Wafakul Madaris, an umbrella body of religious schools, held protests demanding the resignation of Musahrraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz over the military assault on the mosque.

Hundreds of protestors, gathering after Friday prayers, called for 'holy war' and raised slogans like 'Musharraf is a killer' and 'Glory be to the Red Mosque martyrs'.

The operation to flush out extremists holed up in the pro-Taliban mosque claimed the lives of over a hundred people, including 11 security personnel.

MMA President Qazi Hussain Ahmed alleged that according to their information, 400 to 1000 people were killed in the operation and they have formed a committee to trace the missing.

The MMA said it would oppose the demolition of the girls madrassa near the mosque, which the government said was illegally constructed.

Similar protests were also organised on the traditional Muslim day of prayer in various places in all four provinces in the country, including the cities of Lahore and Karachi.

In Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, some 2,000 people took part in the protests, chanting 'Destroy Musharraf'. In Lahore, people offered prayers for the victims at a mosque run by Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a frontal organisation of militant group Laskhar-e-Taiba.