Leder for den ekstreme Lal-moskeen i Islamabad, Maulana Mohammad Abdul Aziz, forlanger at myndighetene følger sharia og renser hovedstaden for horehus og videoer i løpet av en måned. Hvis ikke vil de sette inn selvmordsbombere.

Maulana Mohammad Abdul Aziz og madrasaene knyttet til Lal-moskeen har allerede tatt loven i egne hender. Elevene ved madrasaen for jenter, Jamia Hafsa, hentet med makt sist uke en kvinne som de påsto var horemamma. De tvang henne til å tilstå foran en stor folkemengde.

Selvtekt ser ut til å være en viktig del av aktiviteten. Fredag samlet madrasa-elevene seg foran moskeen og satte fyr på et antall DVD’er de fant støtende.

Eiere av videosjapper sier de merker synkende omsetning. Folk tør ikke leie eller kjøpe DVD’er. -Det er ingen lov og rett lenger, sier en videoforhandler.

Gruppen fremprovoserer situasjoner, for å se om myndighetene tør å svare: jentene har i flere dager okkupert et offentlig barnebibliotek, i protest mot at myndighetene vil ha revet en moskè som er bygget ulovlig på offentlig grunn. De vil se om myndighetene tør å gripe inn. Det kvier myndighetene seg for. Musharraf har forsøkt å kjøpe seg goodwill hos de religiøse aktivistene ved å la dem holde på med sitt. Men nå utfordrer de ham direkte.

«Pakistan was created for an Islamic system,» Mr. Aziz said. «But the government, instead of implementing an Islamic system, is threatening us with a police operation,» he said, referring to the government’s warnings of a raid if the clerics took the law into their own hands.

«Rulers, listen! Our last option will be suicide attacks,» Mr. Aziz said.
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Mr. Aziz and his brother Abdul Rashid Ghazi have emerged as vociferous opponents of General Musharraf. Since January, hundreds of female students from Jamia Hafsa, a religious seminary for girls affiliated with the Lal Mosque, have occupied a public children’s library here and staged a sit-in to protest a government campaign to raze mosques built illegally on state-owned land. The government has balked at breaking up the library occupation, saying it fears a violent escalation.

Last week, female students from Jamia Hafsa kidnapped an alleged brothel owner from a neighborhood in Islamabad. The woman was released only after she gave a public confession.

Veiled students have also visited several video stores, urging their owners to close.

On Friday evening, dozens of students gathered in front of the mosque around a smoldering heap of Pakistani, Indian and English CDs and DVDs. «These are all dirty movies,» one said, claiming that they had been handed over to the students voluntarily by a local video store owner.

Owais Dar, 40, a video store owner in a nearby shopping mall, said he had not been approached by the madrassa students to close down his business, but that sales were already faltering. «People don’t feel that there is any law in the country,» he said.

Radical Pakistani Cleric Threatens Suicide Attacks in Capital