Pakistan: Alleged brothel owner abducted by female Islamists
Source:
AP In an apparent anti-vice crackdown, Islamist students took the law into their own hands and abducted an alleged brothel owner along with her daughter, daughter-in-law and infant granddaughter.
Female Islamic students wearing black burqas kidnapped an alleged brothel owner and held her prisoner at their seminary in the Pakistani capital on Wednesday, as part of an anti-vice drive in defiance of the military-dominated government.
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A group of 30 female and 10 male Islamic students broke into the alleged brothel late Tuesday, which lies about a five minutes walk from the mosque in the center of Islamabad, after the owner, known as Aunty Shamim, ignored their warning to close it.
Student Seema Zubair, 20, said they were holding Shamim, her daughter, her daughter-in-law and her six-month old granddaughter inside their Jamia Hafsa seminary. She said they were not being maltreated and would be freed if they promised to close the brothel.
Authorities on Wednesday arrested two of the seminary's female teachers and two male students over the abductions, sparking angry protests by hundreds of stick-wielding seminary students outside the Lal Masjid mosque they worship at. Abdul Rashid Ghazi, vice-principal at the Jamia Hafsa seminary, threatened jihad, or holy war, unless the teachers were freed.
Both male and female students roamed the main road near the mosque, yelling "Down with Musharraf!" Jihadist slogans and songs played over loudspeakers. Male seminary students commandeered two police vehicles, beat another plainclothes officer with sticks, and, according to witnesses, held two policemen. Tensions eased late Wednesday, when Ghazi announced that the police would be freed, after authorities had agreed to release the seminary teachers and male students.
It was the second major disturbance at Lal Masjid in two months, which has a reputation for preaching hard-line Islam, and links to an outlawed militant group accused in sectarian attacks on Shiite Muslims. In recent days, students have also warned nearby shops to stop selling music and video CDs that they regard as "un-Islamic."
Critics say the government has failed to live up to pledges to regulate Pakistan's thousands of religious schools, even in the capital. Some of the schools promote extremism and are a recruiting ground for jihadists fighting U.S. and NATO forces in neighboring Afghanistan.
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Ayesha Siddiqa Agha, an Islamabad-based political and defense analyst, said the government had no clear policy on how to counter either militants or religious fundamentalists. She said the student campaign in Islamabad, one of Pakistan's most liberal cities, had worrying similarities to the social strictures of the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan. "They are going to turn into a moral police," Agha said. "That is not a situation in which I would want to live."
A group of 30 female and 10 male Islamic students broke into the alleged brothel late Tuesday, which lies about a five minutes walk from the mosque in the center of Islamabad, after the owner, known as Aunty Shamim, ignored their warning to close it.
Student Seema Zubair, 20, said they were holding Shamim, her daughter, her daughter-in-law and her six-month old granddaughter inside their Jamia Hafsa seminary. She said they were not being maltreated and would be freed if they promised to close the brothel.
Authorities on Wednesday arrested two of the seminary's female teachers and two male students over the abductions, sparking angry protests by hundreds of stick-wielding seminary students outside the Lal Masjid mosque they worship at. Abdul Rashid Ghazi, vice-principal at the Jamia Hafsa seminary, threatened jihad, or holy war, unless the teachers were freed.
Both male and female students roamed the main road near the mosque, yelling "Down with Musharraf!" Jihadist slogans and songs played over loudspeakers. Male seminary students commandeered two police vehicles, beat another plainclothes officer with sticks, and, according to witnesses, held two policemen. Tensions eased late Wednesday, when Ghazi announced that the police would be freed, after authorities had agreed to release the seminary teachers and male students.
It was the second major disturbance at Lal Masjid in two months, which has a reputation for preaching hard-line Islam, and links to an outlawed militant group accused in sectarian attacks on Shiite Muslims. In recent days, students have also warned nearby shops to stop selling music and video CDs that they regard as "un-Islamic."
Critics say the government has failed to live up to pledges to regulate Pakistan's thousands of religious schools, even in the capital. Some of the schools promote extremism and are a recruiting ground for jihadists fighting U.S. and NATO forces in neighboring Afghanistan.
[...]
Ayesha Siddiqa Agha, an Islamabad-based political and defense analyst, said the government had no clear policy on how to counter either militants or religious fundamentalists. She said the student campaign in Islamabad, one of Pakistan's most liberal cities, had worrying similarities to the social strictures of the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan. "They are going to turn into a moral police," Agha said. "That is not a situation in which I would want to live."
