• The sprawling Lal Masjid in central Islamabad is a rare mosque to have a name not connected with Islam. True to its name, it has remained a centre of defiance since it was constructed in 1965, though it was managed by the Pakistan government.

• Red is a colour militant Islamists shun because it is identified with communists, or Kafir meaning infidel

• The name was given by the Auqaf department that managed it, which many believe was due to its red walls and interiors. Over the years, it has played a major role in generating jihadis to fight the occupation of Afghanistan by the erstwhile Soviet Union. After that, it trbecame a centre of extremist Sunny ideology.

• Abdullah, father of the two tops clerics–Abdul Aziz and his younger brother Abdul Rashid Ghazi--was chosen as the first cleric of the mosque by Pakistan’s first military ruler Ayub Khan.

• The clerics have been on the Pakistan government’s payroll ever since, receiving funds, salary, patronage.

• During Gen Zia-ul Haq’s time, the mosque acquired a lot of state land in Islamabad to build its madrasas for boys and girls.

• Maulana Abdullah was gunned down outside Lal Masjid in 1998, by suspected rival Shia militants.

• The Masjid showed its street power for the first time in 2003 when radical Sunni leader Aziz Tariq was killed.

• It passed a controversial edict in 2004 against Pakistani soldiers fighting in Waziristan to flush out al-Qaeda and Taliban militants

• According to the daily Dawn, this was the same year Lal Masjid’s links with al-Qaeda were revealed with the arrest of Osama bin Laden’s driver. The government at that time also accused Ghazi of masterminding attacks on government installations but he was mysteriously cleared of those charges.

• The mosque and its madrassas came under the scanner in 2005, when its girl students resisted an government operation. After the 7/7 attacks, UK had called on Pakistan to crack down on Islamic schools.