New Delhi: Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf's Operation Silence at Lal Masjid has found unlikely supporters among the Muslim clerics in India, who have said the use of the mosque for militant activities was condemnable. "It tarnished the image of Islam worldwide," they say.
The Muslim leaders in India have, however, said that negotiations could have been given a greater chance to resolve the standoff to avoid bloodshed. "Lal Masjid had become a centre of militant activities. The mosque's clerics were directly challenging the country's authority and they had to face what they faced," Jamiat-Ulema Hind spokesman Abdul Hammed Nomani said.
Noted Shia cleric Kalbe Sadiq, too, echoed similar views. He said he supported Gen Musharraf's move while underlining that extremism is not allowed in Islam. "The action had to be taken against militants. The al-Qaeda and Taliban who link violence with Islam are misguided people," he said.
Nomani, however, says negotiations would have been the best way to avoid the armed clashes, which resulted in the death of many, including militants and security personnel.
"Human lives could have been saved had the government opted for talks. The military could have continued to surround the mosque for a longer period which would have had compelled the militants holed up to surrender," he said.
"The entire episode has damaged Islam's image worldwide," Nomani said about the incident wherein militant clerics and students took control of Lal Masjid for months before being flushed out through a military action.
The Jamiat leader said the militant clerics taking control of the mosque will send out wrong messages and damage the image of madrasas, which are already under intense pressure over their links with radical Islam.
Fierce gunbattles took place at the mosque four days after security forces stormed it to flush out the militants. Jamat-e-Islami leader S Q R Ilyas also criticised the activities of Lal Masjid clerics. "There is no compulsion in Islam and what the students of Lal Masjid were doing was completely wrong," he said.
But, on the military operation, Ilyas said, "There was no need to wage an armed struggle against the government".
"Negotiations were the best way to solve the Masjid crisis," he said, adding there was no need to take such a harsh step, which claimed innocent lives. He said the government should have accepted their demand of allowing safe passage.
Nomani also dropped subtle hints that Musharraf might have acted at the behest of the US. "It seems Gen Musharraf acted on someone else's advice," he said.
(With PTI inputs)
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