Writ restored but at what cost?

The operation to retrieve the Lal Masjid-Jamia Hafsa complex from the iron grip of militants appears to have entered the final phase and the time is not far when the writ of the government would be restored in the heart of the nation's capital.
The operation, being carried out by a paramilitary force in division-strength with the help of helicopters, is in progress for four days, as people watch the grim battle scene brought to them by 24-hour non-stop television coverage. It is Islamabad's bloodiest event since the founding of the city in the early 1960s.
And, going by the public perception, it is also the most unexpected development, in that all these past months the impression was that the custodians of the Lal Masjid complex were the puppets of the intelligence agencies that were switched on and off into action to create diversions from relatively more serious threats to the regime. It was also argued by some that the government wanted this pot continuously on the boil to convince its sympathizers in the West that but for President Musharraf's stand the extremists would take over Pakistan, along with its nukes.
These perceptions could be right or wrong, but the bitter truth now unfolding is that a Frankenstein was in the making. Over the last quarter century that the Lal Masjid, the capital's first government built and run mosque and in virtual control of these 'Maulana Brothers' family, has been the centre of radical Islam.
During the Afghan Jihad their father, Maulana Abdullah, was a generous host to the holy warriors of all hues and commitments. After his assassination, his two sons, Maulana Abdul Aziz and Maulana Abdur Rasheed Ghazi, took over the complex. They expanded it by adding a female seminary, Jamia Hafsa, and a huge residential hostel - all additions in contravention of the rules of the regulating outfit named Capital Development Authority.
The infrastructural expansion perfectly matched with the growing clout of the Lal Masjid that styled itself as the capital's anti-vice vigilante. In the past too, its anti-vice squads smashed liquor shops and burnt down a cinema. But the current phase, which started in January over the demolition of some mosques alleged to have been built on encroached land was the longest. Its high point was reached last month when the so-called Hafsa Brigade kidnapped nine persons, including six Chinese women, from a massage centre in Islamabad.
Whenever the Lal Masjid anti-vice squads transgressed legal limits by rampaging streets and operated as a state within the state, the government officials looked the other way. Instead of taking action they preferred to hold talks with the 'Maulana Brothers', rather obsequiously. If at all an agreement was reached the defiant Maulanas subverted it the very next day.
That lent strength to the belief, widely held by the political opposition that the Lal Masjid's defiance was a drama enacted on behalf of the government. The religious opposition parties were even more suspicious of the Maulanas' antics, often asking when President Musharraf could order wiping out an entire school in Bajaur Agency over whiff of suspicion why the Lal Masjid complex enjoyed amenity. That created lot of embarrassment for the President and his government. But it was the kidnapping of Chinese women that turned out to be the tipping point in favour of action against the Lal Masjid militants.
The operation against the Lal Masjid complex is being carried out very professionally, in that it ensures minimum loss of life. But for the meticulously injected psyche war element in the operation the number of students who surrendered and left the compound would have been much less.
The kind of resistance put up by the militants from within, extensively portrayed by media, sufficiently proved the point that a place as sacred as a mosque, and a mission as purposeful as imparting education could fall in wrong hands. But in it there is also a warning for the government, that it should function as an open house, relying as little as possible on the props made available by the intelligence agencies.
Surely, the action against the custodians of Lal Masjid complex would be successful as it would restore the government writ but the cost paid for it is also going to be prohibitively high, to be incurred for the second time. It is also important that the government should convince the people of Pakistan that the Lal Masjid operation was carried out in national interest and not for foreign powers. One is struck by the immediacy of the congratulatory call made by Gordon Brown, the new British prime minister, to President Musharraf over the operation. But decency demanded that he should have first apologised for conferring knighthood on Rushdie and then patted the President on the back.