Some religious activists on Friday staged a protest inside Lal Masjid, or the Red Mosque, in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, a private TV channel DAWN NEWS reported.
Some religious activists went into Lal Masjid on Friday, the first day when the mosque was reopened for prayers after the government's "operation silence" against militants in the mosque. The religious activists chanted anti-government slogans and stopped a government cleric from leading the prayers, according to the DAWN NEWS report.
A handful of religious activists led the protest and some of them even beat the cameramen and photographers in the mosque, DAWN NEWS reported.
The government deployed some security forces outside the mosque, according to DAWN NEWS.
The standoff between Lal Masjid religious students and the government started on July 3 when the students tried to snatch arms from security forces deployed around the mosque and triggered crossfires. The government launched an operation named "operation silence" against militants inside the mosque on July 10 after its efforts to negotiate with them ended in failure.
The government renovated the mosque and reopened it to the public on Friday. The children library adjacent to the mosque was pulled down on Wednesday, while demolition of Lal Masjid's affiliated seminary Jamia Hafsa is still underway.
Source: Xinhua
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