by Omar Ali

A lot of the parents were poor and had simply sent their kids away to get free food and lodging and didn’t really know too much about the ideology, but what were Ghazi and his brother doing with these children? How many were in the mosque at the time of the operation? I have heard from the army side that the army made every effort to prevent excessive casualties and that the “children” were not young children but were teenagers who mostly opted to stay behind as their jihadi duty. You may not be aware of the ideology of the mosque, but the “children” were not being taught Shakespeare. They were being taught Jihadi Islam; and while some of them may have been there just for the free board and lodge, some of them must have believed wjat they were being taught and may have been ready to die (and kill) for it..

The mosque was under siege for several weeks before the operation and in the last 2-3 days an operation seemed very likely. There were armed men on top of the mosque and commandos all around it and an SSG officer was killed by fire from the mosque. In these circumstances, why would people leave their children in the mosque “to learn”? To learn what? siegecraft? Of course, the sad fact is that some of the children probably had nowhere else to go. Those are the ones I feel bad about. Held hostage by Ghazi and company and with no way to get out and no parents able to come and get them out.

Some of the poor parents who COULD possibly go to Islamabad and get their kids out may have been misled by the belief that the jihadi Pak army would never kill jihadis in a mosque…that was where they were wrong..

Courtesy: – CRDP , May 4, 2010