Anti-Taliban protesters in Islamabad demand action against pro-militant cleric

Anti-Taliban protesters marched on a police station in Islamabad on Friday to demand an official investigation into a radical cleric who refused to condemn the killing of 132 schoolboys this week, the Guardian reported.

The second night of remarkably bold action by civil society groups came on a day of escalating military strikes against alleged militants and the first executions of convicted terrorists to be carried out in Pakistan for years.

As hundreds of people shouted anti-Taliban slogans and waved placards, a smaller group of protesters entered Islamabad’s Aabpara police station to file an application for a first investigation report – a formal document that triggers a police investigation – against Abdul Aziz, the head of the capital’s Red Mosque. They were alleging that peaceful protesters outside the mosque had been threatened with violence.

The cleric, who makes no secret of his admiration for terrorists, including Osama bin Laden, caused outrage earlier in the week by refusing to condemn the brutal attack by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on the army school in Peshawar.

For a second night protesters attempted to hold a vigil outside the gates of his mosque, but were prevented from doing so by a huge number of police who sealed both entrances to the street.

Despite the tense stand-off with Aziz’s supporters on Thursday, the size of the crowd had notably swelled to about 300, with some saying they had been too fearful to come to the earlier demonstration.

Others said they came after being angered by the registration of a first investigation report against some of the protest organisers, including Jibran Nasir, a young social activist and former parliamentary candidate.