Militants occupy Pakistan shrine
Islamic militants have occupied a shrine in a tribal district of Pakistan and named it after the Red Mosque in Islamabad, locals and officials say. More than 70 pro-Taleban militants evicted local officials from the Haji Sahib Turangzai shrine near the Afghan border in the country’s north-west. The Red Mosque was the scene of a siege this month in which 100 people died. Meanwhile, in the North Waziristan tribal area militants have killed at least seven people, officials say.
Pakistan has seen a massive increase in violence ever since Pakistani troops stormed the Red Mosque in early July. Soldiers entered the mosque after its clerics and students waged an increasingly aggressive campaign to enforce strict Sharia law in Islamabad. The mosque had become a centre of radical Islamic learning and housed several thousand male and female students in seminaries attached to it. More than 100 people were killed in the siege, including 11 soldiers. The attack on the mosque was the most prominent battle fought by security forces in Pakistan since President Musharraf vowed to dismantle the jihadi network in the country in the aftermath of the 11 September, 2001 attacks on the US.
