Mosque Crisis May Boost Musharraf's Hand

Pakistani protesters shout slogans against President Pervez Musharraf's government, to condemn the operation against militants who were holding Islamabad's Red mosque, in Pashawar, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 11, 2007. Pakistani commandos cleared the warren-like Red Mosque complex of all its die-hard defenders, following an assault that ended a bloody eight-day siege and left more than 80 dead, including a pro-Taliban cleric. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zubair) (Mohammad Zubair - AP)

"I'm glad there was no cease-fire with the militants in the mosque because cease-fires simply embolden the militants," she told Britain's Sky TV on Tuesday. "There will be a backlash, but at some time we have to stop appeasing the militants."

Pakistan's mainstream, liberal newspapers also backed the assault, though ordinary citizens appeared less enthusiastic.

Several people interviewed by AP sympathized with some of the clerics' professed goals, especially closing down alleged brothels in Pakistan's relatively Westernized capital.

But they also criticized the mosque leaders' increasingly aggressive anti-vice campaign, which included kidnapping alleged Chinese prostitutes, and their stockpiling of weapons and ammunition at the holy site and an adjoining madrassa, or religious school, for girls.

"Musharraf's government did this to please America," Murtaza Khan, a 55-year-old shopkeeper in Peshawar, said of the army assault at the mosque.

But then he added: "This incident also shows that there should be checks on the madrassas. If something like this is going on in any madrassa, action can be taken in time."

Ikram Sehgal, a Pakistani political analyst, said that sentiment could help Musharraf broaden public support for cracking down on violent Islamic radicalism. The siege "has woken up people in Pakistan who were generally favorable to the Taliban and to the clerics," Sehgal said.

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Associated Press writer Stephen Graham has reported from Pakistan and Afghanistan since 2003.