On the morning of his last day alive, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, head cleric of Islamabad's besieged Lal Masjid (Red Mosque), swore his readiness to die. "My martyrdom is certain," he told the local press. Within hours, Ghazi's bullet-riddled body was carted out of the basement of the sprawling mosque and madrasah, or seminary, complex where he and scores of heavily armed militants had battled Pakistani security forces for eight days. Ghazi is dead, but he may well come to haunt the President, General Pervez Musharraf, and the country.
The assault on the Red Mosque, which began on July...