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ISLAMABAD — Thousands of Islamists demanded Sunday that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf be publicly hanged as they observed the one-year anniversary of a deadly military crackdown on the radical Red Mosque.
More than 3,000 people, including about two dozen veiled women, gathered outside the Islamabad mosque, known as "Lal Masjid," for a conference marking the eight-day siege.
Critics have accused Musharraf of ordering the mosque crackdown at America's bidding. When a conference leader asked who supported Musharraf's execution in a public square, hands went up everywhere, and many chanted, "Killer, killer, Musharraf is a killer."
Mosque supporters also declared they would erect tents on the land where a girls' seminary once stood next to the mosque and restart classes there Monday.
The siege of the mosque was spurred after tension over an increasingly violent anti-vice campaign led by the mosque's administrators — including the kidnapping of alleged prostitutes — boiled over into gunbattles with security forces trying to enforce government authority.
The government said 102 people, including 11 security personnel, were killed in the standoff that began July 3 last year. The siege seriously undermined the government's reputation among ordinary Pakistanis, many of whom believe far more people died, including women and children.
Attendees Sunday included Islamist students who wore red prayer caps in apparent remembrance of Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the deputy cleric of the mosque killed in the operation who wore that color cap.
Sixteen-year-old Mohammed Shahab was among the students. He said he traveled from the northwestern city of Mardan to attend the conference.
"We have come here for implementation of Islamic laws ... (Islamic laws) will come and Musharraf will go," he said, adding that he was against women moving freely in Islamabad because he believed it was against Islam.
After the operation, authorities demolished the sprawling Jamia Hafsa girls' seminary next to the mosque. Qari Saidur Rehman, a senior cleric, read out a declaration from the conference that said administrators would resume girls' classes in tents on Monday.
The government was urged to reopen an affiliated boys school closed after the operation. "If the government does not reopen the madrassa, we will open it ourselves," Rehman said.
The declaration also called for the release of Maulana Abdul Aziz, the mosque's chief cleric, who was arrested while trying to flee the siege in a burqa, the all-encompassing woman's veil.
Armed police manned nearby roadblocks during the gathering, and some streets around the mosque — now repainted beige — were cordoned off with barbed wire.
Speakers sat at a large makeshift stage, and a sign hanging from a tree read, "Martyrs are saying to you 'Do not forget our blood.'"
Cleric Maulana Mujeebur Rehman said Ghazi died fighting for truth.
"God willing, we will continue our journey in the leadership of our elders," he said.
Ghazi's 12-year-old son, Haroonur Rashid, also addressed the conference, saying his father and other victims in the siege laid down their lives in their quest for Islamic law.
"I am also ready to sacrifice my life for Islamic law," he said.
