Tariq Azim: “There will be no more dialogue”

The words could not have been more definitive: Pakistani government officials have decided not to pander to those remaining inside the Red Mosque in Islamabad, just streets away from the Pakistan home of government, who now spend their fifth day besieged with little food or water.

The front wall of the compound has been destroyed by the Pakistan Rangers, Pervez Musharraf’s equivalent of the SAS. Negotiators using loudhailers decried that those inside had a simple choice: surrender or be taken by force. President Musharraf even tried the lure of money to those remaining inside the mosque – 5000 rupees, to be precise, or just over £40.

Yet still, despite the Deputy Information Minister to the Pakistani Government, Tariq Azim, saying that “unconditional, total surrender” would be the only conclusion to this hostage situation, those inside the mosque remain resilient, willing to die. The Sunday Times reported today of two sisters who had admitted to their father over the phone that they were prepared for martyrdom – they were eventually lured out by the fabrication that their mother was ill, and effectively kidnapped back to the sanctuary of their home. The 10-year old elder sister said that she was unsure whether she would be able to forgive her father for snatching the opportunity to become a martyr from her.

A hardened core of 850 remain inside the complex – around 200 of whom were students at the madrassa – and with every passing hour it seems they are more comfortable to their fate as martyrs to the cause of Islam. Ghazi Abdul Rashid, the Deputy Leader of the Lal Masjid madrassa and mosque, has been left effectively in charge after his brother tried to escape past the police cordon by wearing the dress of a woman, and his radical indoctrination of those remaining seems to be working surprisingly well.

Those who do try to escape their hostage plight are gunned down maliciously: two students who tried to run from the mosque on Friday were shot on sight by those who remained inside. The intact walls of the compound are fortified by 14 gunmen with Kalashnikov rifles who themselves use the hostages as – often willing – human shields. The remainder have been corralled underground into the basement of the mosque, making it impossible for Pakistani security forces to damage the building further in case of a cave-in. Around 1,200 are believed to have fled without harm since Tuesday, when the siege began.

It was a raid on a police checkpoint near the compound by 150 students of Abdul Rashid that caused the situation to escalate to such an extent, with forces responding to the attack by using tear gas and later, bullets. 24 people have been killed in the exchange of fire, including one journalist covering the story.

Abdul Rashid, who with his brother inherited the mosque when his father died, sought to radicalise its teachings in line with sharia law, or the strictest version of Islam. They raided nearby wasteland for further possible real estate on which they have increased the size and power of the mosque in the community. It has become a place where it is a privilege to learn, with families sending their sons and daughters to be taught the practices of Islam in a wholesome manner. Some of those caught up in the hostage crisis are orphans of the recent Pakistan earthquake. Rashid has been interviewed on Pakistani television during the crisis, and claims that he will not surrender unless given immunity and allowed to stay on the site to care for his ill mother.

Brown's first 100 days sidetracked by bomb plot

GORDON Brown talked privately in the run-up to the handover of power from Tony Blair to himself not of his actions in the first 100 days of government, but of his first 100 hours. He knows, as a shrewd politician, that in this rapidly-moving world there is something of an accelerated timetable in which to make an impact, to shape his policy and to carve into the minds of the British public the image of the kind of Prime Minister he wishes to be.

With less than one-third of his first 100 hours in 10 Downing Street passed, his political agenda was hijacked by a bungled terrorist attack obviously aimed at sending a message to Britain about their acts on the world stage.

650 people were in the Tiger Tiger nightclub in Haymarket, the heart of London’s West End. Her Majesty’s Theatre was yards away from the place where a silver-green Mercedes pulled up on the curb, abandoned with all four doors open and lights flashing, by a would-be bomber. With 60 litres of fuel in the boot, surrounded by packs of nails and propane to act as a combustor, it would have created carnage for Gordon Brown, only a day and a half into his term as Prime Minister, and for his new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, given office in Brown’s government of all the talents just 12 hours earlier.

It was the actions of an ambulance team who noticed smoke coming from the car before 2am on Friday morning, in calling the emergency services and – most crucially – a bomb disposal team, which prevented the deaths of many. As it was, the terrorist achieved – in part – their aim: the Haymarket was closed for the entire day, and as the clock ticks down towards what would be, on any normal day, curtains up for the West End shows, looks to have cancelled at least two of the plays running in London’s theatre district.

And there is undoubtedly a man willing to detonate a bomb, causing horrific injuries and loss of life to fellow humankind running from the authorities in London tonight. That police were called to Park Lane car park to investigate another suspicious vehicle, which attendants said smelt strongly of petrol, indicates that this was not planned to be a single, solitary attack on the capital. It seems likely that the perpetrator of this plot has at his disposal enough nouse to plan simultaneous detonations – and enough daring to carry out his horrific plans.

Police have searched today the streets of Haymarket for any indication of evidence from the first car bomb. They have meticulously searched through CCTV footage of the area in an attempt to identify the suspect, and it seems likely that they will release pictures to the public if they do not, as they seem to indicate, know who planned to bring London to its’ knees today.

Unsurprisingly, Londoners carried on as normal as possible today, between the traffic jams and police cordons. Tourists in Hyde Park were moved out from the grounds, but those used to terrorist attacks, and the relative normality of living in a city threatened with the fear of terrorism, remained steadfast. The Prime Minister echoed their attitude: Lord Stevens has become Brown’s international security advisor; Admiral Sir Alan West is a security minister at the Home Office, alongside several other appointments today. They will have to become accustomed to their job very rapidly, and help Detective Assistant Constable Peter Clarke of the Anti-Terrorist Squad to establish just what happened today in London, on June 29, 2007.