Pakistan Islamists vow jihad year after mosque siege

A man walks on the roof of the Red Mosque during a gathering in Islamabad, to mark the first anniversary of an army raid on the complex, July 6, 2008.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Thousands of Pakistani Islamists vowed support for jihad, or Muslim holy war, on Sunday as they gathered at a mosque in the capital, Islamabad, to mark the first anniversary of an army raid on the complex.

More than 100 people were killed when commandos stormed the Red Mosque complex, which included a madrasa or Islamic seminary, on July 10 last year, after a week-long siege that began when gunmen from the mosque clashed with police outside.

Speakers told a crowd of several thousand, most of them men, that U.S. ally President Pervez Musharraf was to blame for the bloodshed.

"Pervez Musharraf, you thought you could crush the Islamic movement by attacking the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque), but we are telling you, you have failed," Shah Abdul Aziz, a cleric and former member of the parliament, told the crowd.

"It was done at the behest of America and Bush. But I want to tell America jihad will continue, it will never stop," he said.

The protesters, most of them religious students, shouted "al jihad" in response.

The mosque's hardline clerics and supporters waged a violent campaign to enforce Taliban-style rule, kidnapping women they accused of prostitution and some policemen, and storming music and video shops and beauty parlours.

They also accumulated weapons at the complex in the heart of the capital and battled security forces for days, rejecting appeals to surrender, after the siege began.

The assault unleashed a wave of suicide attacks across the country in which hundreds of people were killed, including former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

NO MERCY

Security around the mosque was tight on Sunday with police road blocks on roads and coils of barbled wire blocking side lanes.

People going to the rally had to pass through metal detectors and many bearded Islamists were frisked.

"The killers of innocent male and female students do not deserve any mercy," read a banner strung up on the main road outside the mosque.

Speakers warned the new government formed after February elections against any crackdown on religious schools and said any such attempts would be forcefully resisted.

They also demanded that the government release the mosque's jailed cleric, Abdul Aziz, and rebuild a women's madrasa in the complex, that was levelled after the raid.

Aziz's brother, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, refused to surrender and was killed when security forces stormed the complex.

Musharraf, who has become isolated after the defeat of his allies in a February election, said on Friday more radical mosques would emerge if extremism and militancy were not tackled.

Militants in recent weeks have begun trying to impose Taliban ways in the northwestern city of Peshawar, prompting authorities to launch a sweep operation against militant hideouts in the nearby Khyber region.

A new coalition government led by Bhutto's party has said the elimination of extremism and militancy was the foremost challenge facing the country and has opened indirect talks with militants to end violence.