ISLAMABAD: Parents and close relatives of the students of the radical madrassa involved in a stand-off with the Pakistani security forces have flayed the Lal Masjid clerics for endangering the lives of their children, vowing never to allow their wards to return to the complex again.
"We would never let anyone use our children for vested interests," a parent said, adding that he would never allow his daughter to return to Jamia Hafsa madrassa.
Several parents termed the government action just and one Qari Liaquat Ali said the government should be praised for exercising restraint.
He said the madrassa administration had not allowed him to retrieve his daughter before the operation.
A 17-year-old student, Raheela, said many girl students were being forced to remain in the complex and were being used as shields.
"I came here for religious education but the brand of Islam propagated by the administration was horrendous," she was quoted as saying by the Daily Times.
Several students said they would never return to the madrassa, even if conditions return to normal. "Though jihad is good, we are not here to fight," said Zabia, a young student from Jamia Hafsa.
Parents said they would never allow their children to return to the madrassas run by Lal Masjid and opposed chief cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz and his deputy Abdur Rashid Ghazi's declaration of jihad, saying it made no sense.
At least 1,200 students of the radical Lal Masjid have surrendered before a fresh deadline set by the government ended even as hardline clerics and militants along with several other students remained holed up inside the complex.
A series of loud blasts and bursts of gunfire were heard around the besieged masjid today triggering speculation that security forces were trying to storm the complex as the stand-off entered the third day.
