Red Mosque cleric released on bail

A pro-Taliban leader in Pakistan is released on bail from detention vowing that the militants' rule will be enforced across the county. Maulana Abdul Aziz was arrested by troops in July 2007 trying to escape the besieged Lal Mosque dressed in a woman's burqa in the capital. Government forces had stormed the mosque to arrest the al-Qaeda militants who were allegedly holed up inside the building and in an adjacent girls' school. Taliban controlled, the Red Mosque had for years been an insurgents' hub in the heart of the Islamabad where main government offices are located. Around 100 people were killed in the ensuing battle between the militants and Pakistani forces. He faces around two dozen cases involving terror, abduction and assisting the seizure of government property, but has yet to stand trial. The former chief cleric of Islamabad's Red Mosque, addressing a crowd of nearly 1,000, vowed to continue his struggle to enforce Taliban style law throughout the country. "The sacrifices given by the people in the Red Mosque and its female students will not go in vain. Islamic system will be enforced in the country," the cleric told a cheering crowd. The Taliban has long campaigned to impose Wahhabi style laws, which include beheading and storming female education centers. Moderate Sunnis and Shia Muslims believe that Taliban and Wahhabis have nothing to do with Islam, and have been imposed on the society by the external powers. The US along with Saudi Arabia encouraged the formation of militant groups in the troubled region in the 1980s to counter the then Soviet Union influence in Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents carry the legacy of such groups. The mosque operation unleashed a wave of revenge suicide attacks across Pakistan that have left more than 1,700 people dead since then. Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network also called on Pakistanis last year to avenge the military raid on the mosque. Aziz's remarks come days after President Asif Ali Zardari's government lost control of Pakistan's restive Swat valley. Zardari on Monday night approved Taliban rule in the Swat Valley and the country's army has surrendered the restive region to extremist Taliban-linked militants. Lawmakers -- under pressure from the militants -- also passed the measure without debate amid Taliban threats that opponents of the bill would be considered apostates and would face the death penalty in the insurgents' self-style courts. Pakistan remain tense as details of the deal have not yet been made public, and moderate forces say the government has showed a lack of capability in fighting members of the al-Qaeda and Taliban. Muttahida Qaumi Movement's (MQM) leader Altaf Hussain has said that Taliban insurgents want to take the country back to the stone ages by taking over the country. MQM was the only party which has boycotted the parliament process, saying it was strongly against the Taliban efforts to spread its ideas with the Kalashnikov. Pakistan suffers from the wave of violence more than seven years after the US-led forces invaded neighboring Afghanistan in 2001 to allegedly oust the Taliban, destroy al-Qaeda, capture Osama bin Laden and bring security to the volatile region. However, al-Qaeda is still active, bin Laden is still at large, Afghanistan is still volatile and violence has spilled over to Pakistan as well.