Pakistani police released

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Muslim radicals Thursday freed two police officers they abducted amid an effort to enforce a harsh interpretation of Islamic law that has raised alarm about the spread of religious extremism in Pakistan.

Abdul Rashid Ghazi, one of two brothers who run Islamabad’s Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, said the officers seized last Friday by students at the pro-Taliban mosque were freed “in the spirit of Islamic brotherhood and humanity” after pleas from their relatives.

The cleric denied the release had anything to do with the gathering threat of a government raid and said his followers could abduct more police in future.

“There is no fear of any kind,” he said.

The release took some of the steam out of an ongoing confrontation between authorities and the clerics, whose students have launched a freelance anti-vice campaign that has included threats to music stores and the abduction of an alleged brothel owner in the relatively affluent and secular capital.