RAWALPINDI, July 15: Most of the mediapersons who spent the nine toughest days of their lives by covering the Lal Masjid siege have been in distress and visibly disturbed especially after winnessing the bullet-riddled walls and roofs of Madressah Hafsa and Lal Masjid.

The mosque was stormed by troops on Tuesday to clear what the government claimed Islamic militants who had been holding women and children hostage inside the complex.

The government said 10 soldiers, one policeman and 91 civilians were killed during the stand-off. At least 19 bodies recovered from the premises were charred beyond recognitions.

Two days after the operation, the government on Thursday opened the complex to the journalists who had been covering the operation from the media camp established away from the Lal Masjid.

A journalist from the print media who was among the media team which first entered the compound after the operation said, “The arms and ammunition recovered from the militants should have been shown to the media as and where they were along with the militants’ bodies scattered in room after room.” He said the weapons were nicely decorated on a red carpet laid inside a room of the madressah.

Usually the police put on display weapons taken out from their Malkhana to show their good work to the media whenever they hold press conferences, and it seemed that the practice was repeated in this case too, he said.

Another journalist said: “The bullet-riddled walls and roofs blackened from fire that had also burnt the doors of several rooms suggested as if all these had been set ablaze deliberately.

Another mediaperson said: “I am very sad to know the number of causalities; many houses are now going to be full of widows or orphans. So many lives have been lost, it was a great tragedy.

“I have seen twice a group of small students roaming on the premises of Madressah Hafsa. But when I woke up I was extremely disturbed by realising that it all was a dream.”

A female journalist said: “It was not less than a doomsday for me when I walked through the heavily-guarded battered compound amid smoke and stench. There was an inexplicable gloom in the air. Blood stains were also visible on the beddings and women’s clothes all rolled up and dumped into a corner in a number of rooms.”

How they (the women and children) would have cried on seeing the soldiers turning their guns at them is not less than a terrible scene, she said.

“I have not properly slept nor eaten properly since I visited the Lal Masjid and Madressah Hafsa complex. The sights of bullet- riddled roofs and heavily-armed soldiers inside the mosque with their shoes on always perturb me.”

Yet another journalist said what had happened was sad; it should not have happened. They should have waited for another couple of days to solve the issue.
Source: Dawn
Date:7/16/2007