Chemical Weapons used in Lal Masjid Operation

By Teeth Maestro on Jul 14, 2007 in Politics, Pakistan | Share This

Posted at Teeth Maestro:

On 12th July, AAJ Tv boradcasted a program of Live with Talat in which Talat Hussain visited Jamia Hafsa. While touring the bullet ridden compound a number of military personal hovered around, at a certain point Talat Hussain asked an accompanying Army personal about all the evidence of smoke around the area asking, “Why is there so much smoke?”, the solider replied “WP”, Talat put another question “Please explain WP?”, the solider answered “White Phosphorus.”

White Phosphorus is a flare / smoke producing incendiary weapon which is also used as an offensive Anti-Personnel flame compound capable of causing serious burns or death. White phosphorus weapons are controversial today because of its potential use against humans, for whom one-tenth of a gram is a deadly dose and according to the Geneva Convention which was later amended by the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons signed into effect in 1997, expressively prohibits the use against civilians. White Phosphorus weapons have been used in the recent past by Israel in Lebanon and US and UK in Iraq, but probably the first time ever by a an army against its own people

Article 1 of Protocol III of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (Wikipedia) defines an incendiary weapon as ‘any weapon or munition which is primarily designed to set fire to objects or to cause burn injury to persons through the action of flame, heat, or combination thereof, produced by a chemical reaction of a substance delivered on the target’. The same protocol also prohibits the use of incendiary weapons against civilians or in civilian areas. However, the use against military targets outside civilian areas is not explicitly banned by any treaty.

There continues to be a strong debate on how Musharraf should have handled this situation, but what surprises me is the inhumanity of this attack, dexterity of the assault should have meant targeted exchange of fire maybe an occasional rubber bullet to pacify the milder militants, but the indiscriminate use of chemical weapons, by the National Army against its own people. Is jaw dropping serious, its akin to the mass murder which happened in Karachi on May 12th when the Army headed off to the barracks leaving the city at the hands of ruthless killers for six hours..

To understand the gravity of the situation one has only to look at these two images of burnt bodies the sight is excruciatingly painful, when the Americans used White Phosphorous on the victims in Fallujah back in April 2004.

If you look at the top most image which appeared in Dawn on 13th July (link) one sees the classic signs of a high intensity flame, which reached astounding temperatures to melt the steel framework of ceiling fans, one must also noted that the public was not shown the remains of numerous people killed in the disaster and quickly buried them in concealed wooden coffins the next day.

I am shocked and stunned at what has just happened, it should be enough for the world to wake up and ask for an unconditional removal of the dictator

Story credit:: Asma

Source:
http://www.teeth.com.pk/blog/2007/07/14/white-phosphorus-used-in-operation-silence/

My Thoughts on Lal Masjid Issue!

Throughout the Musharaf’s regime, we are facing incidents one after the another and each time the Islam of the Pakistanis is blamed one way or another. Whats going on at Lal Masjid, its horrible and highly shameful for both the people inside the Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa and the government for making a mess of the situation. It could have been solved through negotiations earlier, but the government needlessly lengthened it by displaying a complete lack of responsibility. We live in Islamabad and are in a continuous state of tension since the issue has intensified.

I am a Muslim and like all Muslims it’s my desire to live in an Islamic Society. The regime of Musharaf has since the beginning, criticized the beliefs of the Muslims and publicized the Enlightened Moderation. This is the cause that nearly every good Muslim in Pakistan hates him no matter what he does. Due to different policies of the government, people like the clerics at Lal Masjid have started their obnoxious efforts against the govt. I don’t defend the actions of these clerics but criticize the way they took the matter, it was not Islamic and due to them our government has got a strong base to take actions against every religious seminaries throughout the country no matter how good they are serving.

There are few things which lead me think that government is responsible for this catastrophe. First of all how was it possible that government and law enforcement agencies were not aware what was going in Lal Masjid? How is it possible and why they didn't stop them at that time? For the past few weeks, the Government was facing pretty bad response from the people due to its bad policies and being in the Election year, it was harming the cause of government to hold on in these elections. During that time, the government of Prez Musharaf was busy in its case against Chief Justice instead of handling the situation at the Lal Masjid by negotiations. They intentionally lengthened the issue so that they could have something to divert the people’s attention to.

The goals achieved by government!!!

· Humiliation of Beared and Burqa, arrest of Khalid Khawja( an activist of Human Rights with islamic perspective), a new plan against the so called extremism and Madrassas(seminaries) on its way ( as it is reported that a high official meeting is held in which it is decide to have a crack down on Seminaries like lal masjid). One has already taken place at Jamia Faridia in Islamabad.

· Deriving people's mind towards enlightened moderation through tense media coverage and showing off the rigid behavior of lal masjid clerics.

It was a case that could have easily talked down by the government much earlier but was made a disaster by the government intentionally to gain these benefits.