ISLAMABAD: Crowds continued to gather for a second day outside the Lal Masjid in Islamabad to protest against the mosques controversial cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz.
Protesters were heard demanding the immediate arrest of Molvi Abdul Aziz, who openly sympathises with the Taliban and has recently declared his allegiance to Daesh or so called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Heavy contingents of police have been deployed in the area to avoid any untoward incident.
Activist Mohammad Jibran Nasir, who organised the protests put forth his charter of demands and reason for leading the protest earlier today.
Nasir, on the social networking site Twitter shared details of the location of the protest and requested people to join.
Speaking to The Express Tribune Nasir claimed he is protesting to reclaim our mosques back from extremists.
Maulana Abdul Aziz lives in the heart of Islamabad and has been allowed to validate the extremist narrative for a decade now, Nasir said.
Angered by denial of an extremist cleric to condemn the bloodbath in Peshawar school, a large number of civil society activists staged a demonstration outside the Lal Masjid here on Thursday demanding that the mosque be liberated from clutches of its chief cleric. The sprawling mosque is located close to diplomatic area of the capital.
Earlier last night the candlelight vigil and protest was organised in response to a statement by the Aziz in which he openly admitted of mosques ideological allegiance with Al-Qaeda and ISIS and refused to condemn the massacre of students and teachers in Peshawar.
The protesters demanded that the police arrest Aziz by reopening old cases against him.
While the nation is mourning the Taliban massacre of students and staff in Peshawar and is looking up to the Pakistan Army to cleanse the northwestern tribal regions of radicals and terrorists, Lal Masjids cleric Abdul Aziz is adamant that use of force against Taliban is not the wise option.
Protesters carrying banners against the inhumane attack in Peshawar and criticising Aziz by waving placards that read burqua maulana, in reference to the maulana donning a burqua to escape the 2007 Lal Masjid siege. They lit candles on one side of the road, wrote names of the students killed in Peshawar on a board and began shouting slogans against the chief cleric.
Protestors were defiant and said they will hold the vigil for the next one week, after which it will be held every Tuesday night.
The Lal Masjid was the sight of the armys Operation Sunrise in 2007, a siege that resulted in 154 deaths, and 50 militants were captured.
