The former chief cleric of Lal Masjid, Maulana Abdul Aziz, reiterated his call for the enforcement of Islamic laws in Pakistan on Saturday. | It was the first public statement made by Aziz since he was arrested in a womanÂ’s burqa on July 5 while trying to flee the governmentÂ’s siege against the mosque. |
Aziz has defended his and the mosque’s students’ actions by saying, “we were only demanding enforcement of Islamic law” and saying they did not commit any crimes. “Those sacrifices were for Islam,” he told reporters, referring to the death of his son, brother and other students of the madrassa. Aziz made his comments at a court near Islamabad when police produced him before a judge in connection with the killing of a soldier near his mosque before the operation.
The judge allowed police to hold him for questioning until August 4, according to defence lawyer Hashmat Habib. Aziz had been using Lal Masjid as a base for sending out radicalised madrassa students to enforce their Taliban-like version of Islamic morality, including the abduction of alleged prostitutes, since January.