14 to 16 july 2007, islamabad - the red mosque attack

Sha Faisal Masjid - claimed to be Asia's largest mosque. a Chinese man drove us here when we met him on the road outside his guarded terrace house.

it was a thrilling bus ride from gilgit to islamabad. the roads were narrow... at times, only one vehicle can cross a sharp turn round the tall hill while the other parked close to the hill to wait for his turn. road condition was very poor... some vehicles fell to the side of the hill and were held in the middle of the slope by some thick tree branches.

i don't know how but I fell asleep on the bus anyway and woke up in the morning to find that the bus was cruising smoothly on a big road towards Rawalpindi. phew...

we arrived at a hotel at Rawalpindi but the place was too rowdy and expensive. so we took another mini-bus to Islamabad, where we checked into Star Hotel.

the weather in islamabad was so hot at the time of visit... i think it was around 38 degrees celcius. the weather cooled to a good 28 degrees after a big rain.

the red mosque attack had just ended a few days ago. many people died and some roads especially near the Lal Masjıd and embassies were closed. many soldiers were stationed there and curfews were imposed. some slight tension can be felt around everywhere.

the locals had different views about the killing. many were against the govt's decision to fire at the students who held hundreds of hostages. to show their disatisfaction, the extremists took the opportunity to carry out massive suicide bombings in many parts of pakistan, mainly in the north western area, which took away many innocent lives.