Storming of Lal Masjid in Pakistan: An Analysis

Religious places are being increasingly used by fundamentalists and terrorists as their hideouts and strongholds to propagate their subversive ideology and launch attacks. This has often compelled states to use the military to flush them out. This use of the army has far-reaching consequences and can even alienate the population. To check and prevent such adverse fallout, a state needs to take decisive action at an early stage. Without focusing on the causative factors and tactical aspects of any military operation, this article attempts to identify lessons at the macro level to deal with such situations by using the storming of the Lal Masjid in Islamabad in July 2007 as a case study.