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Pakistan radicals detain 7 Chinese for “vice”

Nirupama Subramanian

Captives freed after Government intervention

ISLAMABAD: To Pakistan’s deep embarrassment, its “all-weather friend” got a first-hand taste of Islamist extremism when a hardline mosque, whose frequent transgressions of the law the Government appears helpless to stop, kidnapped seven Chinese nationals for “immoral” and “vulgar” activities.

The “anti-vice squad” of the Lal Masjid, notorious for its militant women’s madrassa, for its fatwas, threats of suicide bombings and jihad, and for taking hostages who are released after “ negotiations” with the Government, raided a Chinese massage parlour in the capital on Friday night, “arresting” nine persons. Among them were six Chinese women, one Chinese man and two Pakistani men.

On Saturday afternoon, following interventions by the highest levels of Government, the mosque cleric announced the release of the captives “for Pakistan-China friendship”. He also invited the Chinese envoy for a tour of Lal Masjid to see for himself the “good work” being done by the mosque in the service of Islam.

He apologised if the action had caused any “sadness” to China, but said the Chinese Government should see it in the “correct perspective”.

Eyewitnesses said a group of 30 men and women, believed to be students of Jamia Fareedia and Jamia Hafsa, two madrassas affiliated to the Lal Masjid, carried out the raid a little after midnight on Friday.

A press release from the Lal Masjid said the raid was a “natural reaction against obscenity” and that the captives would be released after “counselling” about the rights and wrongs according to Islamic tenets.

The administrator of the Jamia Hafsa women’s seminary, Ghazi Abdul Rashid, who is also a cleric at the Lal Masjid, said the massage centre was a front for a brothel, and it was enticing Pakistani men into committing adultery. It was unacceptable even as a massage centre because its employees were female while the clientele was male.

Within hours of the raid, sidestepping media attention, the Chinese embassy quietly began pushing all buttons at its command in the Pakistan Government to secure the early release of its nationals. Ambassador Lou Zhaohui spoke to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and remained closeted for hours with ruling Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhary Shujat Hussain and party secretary-general Mushahid Hussain Syed.

The PML leader played an important role in securing the early release of the hostages. He has held many rounds of “negotiations” with the Lal Masjid before this to end a long stand-off between the mosque and the Government that began when the Islamabad administration started demolishing mosques it said were illegal.

Several times, the Government did threaten an “operation” against the mosque, but backed off each time to start “negotiations for an amicable resolution” with the clerics. The multiple episodes triggered by the mosque have raised questions about the Government’s seriousness in dealing with Islamist extremism. It has also given rise to suspicion that sections of the Pakistan establishment are using the Lal Masjid to divert attention from the political unrest set off by President Pervez Musharraf’s move to suspend Chief Justice Ifthikar Chaudhary.

Interestingly, the latest episode came as Mr. Chaudhary set off on another road journey, this time from Lahore to Multan.

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