Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Lal Masjid standoff

The standoff between the security forces and militant students in the Lal Masjid-Jamia Hafsa complex in Pakistan is unfortunate. Is teaching young boys and girls to take the law into their own hands the best way of making them good Muslims? Why did the Pakistan Government wait for six long months to act against Abdul Rashid Ghazi? Were not he and the students he mentored encouraged by the government’s kowtowing to the religious right? Did it not occur to the chiefs of the Lal Masjid rebellion that no government would tolerate the defiance of its writ for long and that sooner or later it was bound to act?

K.S. Jayatheertha,
Bangalore

* * *

The Lal Masjid drama is not just about confrontation of students with the government. The administration and students of Lal Masjid were openly engaged in spreading fundamentalism. They threatened local people and amassed arms and yet the government looked the other way. The present standoff is a clear-cut instance of lack of political will and assertiveness. In India too, successive governments have failed to check rising Hindu fundamentalism. Attacks on the gatherings of the minorities are common. Silence over such incidents will prove dangerous in the long run.

Seema Duhan,
Hisar

* * *

The Lal Masjid incident is a very clear indication of the fact that Pervez Musharraf has no control over religious clerics and self-proclaimed protectors of Islam. That the Ghazi’s followers went about doing what they liked speaks to Gen. Musharraf’s failure. By allowing the situation to get out of hand, the general has proved to the world that he is increasingly losing control of the state.

S. Sudhir Kumar,
Hyderabad

* * *

Even as a group of fundamentalists repeatedly called for jihad, the Musharraf regime chose to ignore them. The state can negotiate with groups only up to a point. When talks reach an impasse and there is deterioration of law and order, the state should act. Instead of nipping the problem in the bud, Gen. Musharraf waited for too long.

Irfan Shamim,
New Delhi

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