Freed on bail, Maulana Abdul Aziz, an Islamic cleric, addressed supporters on Thursday at the Red Mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan. He led militants in a bloody standoff at the mosque in 2007.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A hard-line Islamic cleric who had tried to impose Taliban-style rule here in the capital returned Friday to the city’s Red Mosque, the scene of a bloody siege nearly two years ago, and vowed to continue his struggle to enforce Islamic law in the country.
Pakistani men pray next to a bullet-ridden vehicle parked in the compound of the Red Mosque as the chief cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz speaks to supporters during Friday prayers.
The cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, was released Thursday night after the Supreme Court granted him bail. The charges he faces include involvement in terrorist acts and abetting terrorists, and he was held under house arrest for almost two years.
After his release, Mr. Aziz, known for his extremist and anti-American views, said that he no longer supported suicide bombings against Muslims and that his struggle would remain peaceful, local news reports said. Those reports said he still supported suicide bombings against non-Muslims, but provided no details.
In a sermon delivered after Friday Prayer in the Red Mosque, he hinted that he would again consider turning to violence, according to Reuters.
“We are a peaceful people, but if our way is blocked, then you have witnessed the scenes in Swat and in FATA,” he said, referring to the Swat Valley and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, where militants have battled the government.
Thousands of his followers came to hear him and filled the mosque and adjacent street during the sermon.
Speculation was rife in the Pakistani news media that the release was part of an understanding between the government of President Asif Ali Zardari and Mr. Aziz, who has promised to help stop the spate of suicide bombings that has rattled Pakistan in recent months. Mr. Aziz denies making such a deal.
The Pakistani Army battled hard-line militants holed up inside the Red Mosque and its adjacent school compound for eight days in July 2007 before storming it and taking it over. At least 50 militants were killed, but the exact number remains in dispute. Mr. Aziz was arrested after trying to escape clad in a burqa.
The siege has become a potent symbol and motivation for militants who have retaliated in attacks against the government. At the time, Pervez Musharraf, then the president, defended the raid, saying the mosque had become a recruiting ground for terrorists.
Critics of the government said Friday that Mr. Aziz’s release seemed to fit a pattern of appeasement that would not work to contain the religious extremists who were increasingly threatening Pakistan’s stability.
Earlier this week, President Zardari signed a measure that imposed Islamic law in the restive northwestern region of Swat. As a result, militants in Swat agreed to a cease-fire.
Cyril Almeida, an editor at Dawn, the country’s most prestigious daily newspaper, said in an interview that the release of Mr. Aziz was a result of the country’s weak judicial system. “Pakistan has a broken judicial system,” he said. “Aziz was booked in over two dozen cases, but the cases were pursued in such a haphazard, unprofessional manner that any court would eventually have to release him anyway.”
Mr. Almeida said the problems with the judicial system would hamper any government efforts against militants. “Hamstrung in this way, Pakistan is almost certain to never be able to get the leaders behind militancy here — unless the state kills them in the battlefield,” he said.
Mosharraf Zaidi, a political analyst based in Islamabad, said in an interview that Mr. Aziz’s release was “symbolic, not substantive.”
“What he preaches, the intolerance, and violence and myopia, is not unique to him, or his mosque,” Mr. Zaidi said. “It is a virus for which there is no cure in the foreseeable future.”
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