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Outside Islamabad's notorious Red Mosque police and paramilitaries were setting up barbed wire fences and being dispatched on patrol.
Inside, the mosque's senior officials were explaining why they had been dispatching their own troops - groups of young baton-wielding, burqa-clad women who have launched a crackdown against the
city's perceived immorality.
Their latest target were six Chinese masseuses, alleged to be working as prostitutes, who were kidnapped and "re-educated" two weeks ago. Amid great embarrassment for President Pervez Musharraf and complaints from the Chinese Government, the women were later released - albeit wearing burqas and having been told in no uncertain terms that the mosque did not approve of them handling male flesh, whether in the course of a massage or otherwise.
"The thing is that we are convinced that the system in Pakistan is a total failure," said Abdul Rashid Ghazi, a bespectacled man with a wispy, grey beard. "It's not giving justice, it's not giving the basic necessities. It's not giving the basic education for the people of Pakistan."
Ghazi and his elder brother, Maulana Abdul Aziz, have run the Red Mosque, or Lal Masjid, since their father Maulana Abdullah, an outspoken imam who often delivered fiery sermons on jihad, was assassinated within the compound's walls in the 1990s.
The ultimate ambition of the mosque - which has long admitted supporting the Taleban and al Qaeda - is nothing less than sharia law for Pakistan.
In recent weeks students from the mosque's two seminaries or madrassas - one for young women and one for young men - have been threatening shopkeepers and stores selling DVDs and videos. Previously a group of covered female students, many armed with Kalashnikov rifles, took over a public library in protest against the Government of General Pervez Musharraf.
When the Independent visited the mosque there was no sign of masseuses but there were plenty of young men - many carrying semi-automatic rifles. Most were very friendly.
Ghazi admitted the seizure of the Chinese women had been something of a publicity stunt, "a wake-up call". But he claimed it underlined a serious point and that people in Pakistan wanted change.
"It is not just us - everybody is speaking against the system. But we are a little more forceful. We are speaking loudly," he said.
The code of the Red Mosque - whose seminaries contain more than 8000 students - is strict. Officials admit they do not permit music or games and they denounce activities such as kite flying. They explain this by saying they believe that an individual's time on earth is precious and should not be wasted on such pursuits.
Yet while the mosque usually makes headlines for its apparent extremism - its defence of suicide-bombing, its alleged link to one of the 7/7 bombers or else the exploits of its baton-wielding morality brigades - it also campaigns vociferously for the rights of individuals who have been locked up in Pakistani jails or else have simply "disappeared".
For Musharraf - confronting considerable political problems before elections scheduled for later this year - the mosque, located close to the shining parliament building and within walking distance of the country's murky ISI intelligence service, presents a serious challenge.
He is embarrassed by its recent actions, its backing by the country's religious political parties - whose support he also courts - but his options are limited. It is far easier for him to rail against "foreign fighters", as he did in a speech last week, than it is to take action against extremists living a kilometre from his home.
The strongest words he could muster against the Red Mosque were: "I know a majority of the people are against these elements and want to purge the country of the scourge of extremism ... We are all Muslims and these people have no right to categorise the people as good and bad Muslims."
But as many Pakistani commentators have been pointing out - and as Red Mosque officials clearly understand by their headline-grabbing behaviour - actions speak louder than words.
- INDEPENDENT
