Activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) gathered at Chowk Nawan Shehr to protest against remarks of the Lal Masjid cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, who declined to condemn the barbaric Peshawar attack that claimed lives of over 141 people, including 133 schoolchildren. The protesters said the Islamabad administration must immediately arrest the cleric for his remarks supporting the Taliban who massacred innocent schoolchildren at the army-run school in Peshawar.
The head of the Lal Masjid called the army offensive against the Taliban "un-Islamic" and said the massacre of 133 schoolchildren by the Taliban was in retaliation for air strikes against them. They shouted slogans against the Taliban and called them enemy of Islam. Mirza Furqan Mughal, ex-MPA, led the demonstration. Mughal said: "The Lal Masjid was an open nursery of terrorism and a centre for the propagation of Taliban and Da'ish and was located in federal capital Islamabad." The clerics of Lal Masjid had in recent past held Chinese citizens as hostage and shot army officers, including a Colonel and soldiers, he said, adding that it would be better if the Lal Masjid would have been eliminated then but it was spared, which was a blunder and had resulted in the massacre of innocent students of the Army Public School in Peshawar.
The MQM leader said it was high time for the decisive action against the cleric of Lal Masjid, who had exposed him as an open supporter and advocate of terrorist Taliban and their inhuman deeds. It was a high time to take them to task failing which no action could be taken in future because the entire political leadership and the masses across the board were now on the same page.