Mujahid
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ISLAMABAD: A group of men and women allegedly from Lal Masjid ripped apart the election posters of former president Pervez Musharrafs party candidate in the federal capital late on Friday.
Sheikh Sajid, a supporter of Musharrafs All Pakistan Muslim League (APML), said around 20 burqa-clad women and 10 bearded men took off the partys posters from lampposts in Aabpara Market and ripped them up.
Sajid, who was sitting at the election office of APML candidate Dr Muhammad Amjad, which is also in the market, said the men and women arrived there at around 8:45pm in a pickup truck and a sedan.
Even the police did not stop them from tearing down the posters, he said. How could we party workers have dared to intervene?
Sajid said the Lal Mosque crowd has not created any trouble at the election office.
Islamabad police officials stationed near Aabpara chowk denied any knowledge of the activity.
However, eyewitness Umar Khan, who sells jewellery and wallets on the sidewalk at the Aabpara market, confirmed the incident. Khan also claimed the people who tore the posters belonged to Lal Masjid and said he supported their act of vengeance against Musharrafs party.
In 2007, Musharraf ordered a military operation at Lal Masjid after its leadership refused to disarm and stop harassing people in the capital. Around 100 people were killed in the operation, including at least 11 soldiers and at least 84 people from the mosque, including the mosques deputy cleric and students, who had decided to stay inside the mosque compound after being given the opportunity to peacefully vacate the premises by law enforcement officials, were killed during the operation.
It is wrong to kill people, said Khan, who hails from Bajaur Agency but has lived and worked around Aabpara for the past eight years. Not just Muslims. Even if it they are Hindus or atheists, they have a right to live.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 13th, 2013.
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