( AFP ) - Islamists occupied Pakistan's Red Mosque and began repainting its walls in their original colour after it reopened following this month's bloody army raid, an AFP reporter and police said.
Hundreds of protesters, formerly students at the hardline Islamabad mosque, took control of the building during Friday prayers after chasing out a government-appointed preacher and police.
Five or six people carrying buckets daubed red paint over the outer walls, which had been changed to a peach colour during government renovations, while dozens more unfurled Islamist flags and banners on the roof.
"It is true that rowdy students have overtaken the mosque, they are not letting the prayers be held," a senior security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
