Sunday Times 2
Pakistan court issues arrest warrant for hardliner cleric
View(s):ISLAMABAD, Dec 27, (AFP) – A Pakistani court has issued an arrest warrant for a hardline Islamic cleric who suggested the massacre of school children in country’s worst ever terror attack was understandable, after he allegedly threatened people criticising him.
Maulana Abdul Aziz, the pro-Taliban cleric and head of the Red Mosque in capital Islamabad has been accused of threatening civil society activists, who this week staged several demonstrations outside the mosque, a police official and a spokesman for the mosque told AFP.
The protests were staged to denounce Aziz, who refused to condemn the massacre on a television talk-show.
Later Aziz effectively told worshippers the attack in Peshawar, which left around 150 people dead — mainly children, was a justifiable reaction to the army’s “un-Islamic” operation against militants in the North Waziristan tribal district.
“O rulers, O people in power, if you will commit such acts, there will be a reaction,” he told worshippers in a sermon last week, prompting further protests accusing him of being a Taliban sympathiser.
“Police have received the court order and we are trying our best to implement it,” a police official in capital Islamabad told AFP, requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to talk to media.
Hafiz Ihtesham Ahmed, a spokesman for the Red Mosque accused civil society activists of pressurising police to register a case against Aziz.