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[cbclark4]

Pakistan rejects partial surrender

Heavy gunfire and explosions have rocked a besieged mosque in Pakistan after the government rejected a conditional surrender offer by the mosque's deputy leader and accused him of using women and children as human shields.

A day after his brother, the leader of the mosque, was caught fleeing in a woman's burqa, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, deputy leader of the Lal Masjid or Red mosque, said he would give himself up if he could stay on the premises temporarily with their sick mother.

Tariz Azeem, the deputy information minister, dismissed the offer, saying that Abdul Rashid was hiding in the mosque's basement with 20 women and an unknown number of children and could not escape justice.

Azeem said: "The time for rhetoric is over. He must come out with the women and children he is using as shields, hand over all the weapons, and bring it to a decent closure."

The tense standoff erupted on Thursday afternoon in some of the heaviest clashes yet, with students opening fire on troops and hurling hand grenades, Major-General Waheed Arshad, the chief military spokesman, said.

Two huge blasts later destroyed most of the wall surrounding the complex and sent smoke spewing into the evening sky.

Officials said security forces were using explosives to demolish the wall and had come under rocket attack.

Heavy gunfire and blasts erupted again early on Friday after nearly an eight-hour lull as armoured personnel carriers moved closer to the mosque.

"Explosive charges have been detonated by security forces to further damage and demolish the boundary wall," a security official said.

He said he was "making this offer to save the lives of the students", who were holed up with him in the compound.

Fresh clashes

But the authorities said Abdul Rashid must come out with his followers and lay down their weapons as the violence that killed 19 people entered its fourth day.


http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4F3CF9B4-CC85-4E4B-8198-5957334F80F2.htm

[cbclark4]

Pakistan cleric offers surrender

Mosque explosions
The deputy leader of a rebel mosque in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, has said he and hundreds of his militant followers are ready to surrender.
Ghazi Abdul Rashid said they would lay down their arms if the security forces ceased firing and did not arrest them.

But the conditions were dismissed by Pakistani government ministers.

The offer to end the confrontation, in which 19 people have died, came after troops pounded the Red Mosque complex, breaching its wall in three places.

Earlier, there were two large explosions near the mosque and the attached religious school.

Security officials said the blasts were probably caused by mortars belonging to the students going off by mistake.

Both sides exchanged fire throughout the day, although the clashes have now stopped.

On Thursday evening much of the city was plunged into darkness, after storms caused failures in the power supply.

'Sick mother'

Speaking in a telephone interview broadcast on Pakistani television, Abdul Rashid said he had told government mediator Chaudry Shujaat Hussain that his followers were ready to surrender.

"I am making this offer to save the lives of the students," he said.

But Abdul Rashid said he had insisted the authorities promise not to detain anyone who they could not prove belonged to any banned militant groups, or were not wanted for any crime.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6274518.stm

[cbclark4]

Favorite highlights from the article.


"Abdul Rashid was hiding in the mosque's basement with 20 women and an unknown number of children "

"The time for rhetoric is over. He must come out with the women and children he is using as shields, hand over all the weapons, and bring it to a decent closure."

"Abdul Aziz was arrested by security forces on Wednesday night after trying to escape the compound in a burqa, a long enveloping garment worn by Muslim women. "

[cbclark4]

Colonel killed in Pakistan siege

Hundreds of troops have been surrounding
the Red Mosque since Tuesday [AFP]

A senior army officer has been killed outside the Red mosque compound in Islamabad as army commandos blasted holes in a perimeter wall in the hope that hundreds of men and women would escape.

Authorities issued a "last warning" students inside the compound late on Sunday as speculation mounted that a full-scale assault would be launched.

"This is the last warning for you to surrender," they said over loudspeakers outside the mosque.

Officials have said that they believe the resistance is being led by between 50 and 60 "hardcore" fighters.

Mohammad Ejaz-ul-Haq, Pakistan's religious affairs ministers, said on Sunday that "terrorists, militants, who are wanted within, and outside, the country" were inside the mosque.

He added that the government believed that Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the mosque's deputy leader, had effectively been deposed.


http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/81360221-21F1-4EC9-A84E-7EC4215D26AB.htm

[cbclark4]

Chinese workers shot in Pakistan

The men worked at a small factory on the outskirts of Peshawar
Three Chinese workers have been shot dead by suspected Islamic militants in the Pakistani city of Peshawar.
Gunmen shouting religious slogans attacked the Chinese men at a small auto-rickshaw factory. A fourth Chinese worker was wounded in the attack.

Officials believe the attack might be linked to the stand-off at an Islamabad mosque where students are barricaded.

That siege began after Islamist students abducted seven Chinese workers they accused of running a brothel.

The Pakistani government is facing pressure from Beijing to do more to protect Chinese workers in the country.

China's ambassador in Islamabad urged Pakistan to "round up the culprits, properly handle the follow-up issues and take effective measures to protect all the Chinese in Pakistan".


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6282574.stm

[cbclark4]

Mosque raid boosts Musharraf image
By Aamer Ahmed Khan
BBC Urdu Service, Islamabad


Musharraf is at a make-or-break phase in his eighth year in power
Barely two weeks ago, Pakistan's military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, was battling for his political survival.

The war drums being beaten by the opposition at home were reaching a crescendo.

His battle with the country's chief justice had taken a serious toll on his image as a military man who loathes the pettiness of everyday politics.

More importantly, perhaps, his Western allies seemed to be getting increasingly impatient with his seeming inability to deal decisively with Islamist extremists.

All this seems to have changed dramatically over the last three days, after Gen Musharraf gave his administration the green light for dismantling a radical seminary located in the heart of capital, Islamabad.

Major embarrassment

Jamia Hafsa - a seminary affiliated with one of the city's oldest mosques, known as the Red Mosque - had been running circles around the Islamabad administration since the beginning of this year.

Demanding strict enforcement of Sharia (Islamic law), Red Mosque clerics had let loose moral squads on the capital to "prevent vices and promote virtue" - a concept first institutionalised by the Taleban in Afghanistan.

These moral squads, consisting of armed male and female students, were going around the city threatening music shop owners, and kidnapping women over allegations of operating brothels.

But every time they took the law into their own hands, the government had opted for negotiations, arguing that any use of force was likely to lead to bloodshed.

Emboldened by the government's perceived *beep*-footing, Red Mosque clerics kept raising their public profile until they became a major embarrassment for the government.

However, President Musharraf kept advocating restraint on the basis of intelligence reports which warned of the presence of a large number of suicide bombers inside the mosque and its affiliated seminary.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6274018.stm

[cbclark4]

'Dozens dead' as Red Mosque stormed

Forty armed students and three Pakistani soldiers have been killed in an assault by security forces on the besieged Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, Pakistan military officials have said.

The operation in Islamabad was still continuing and gun-battles were still taking place in the compound.

No civilians are known to have been killed, a spokesman said.

Pakistani forces have not yet found any of the hundreds of women believed to be inside, he said.

"I would not say that they are following the teachings of the Prophet, but the warped version of their warped clerics"

"As far as a figure of militants is concerned the information I have from troops carrying out the operation is around 40," major-general Waheed Arshad, the chief military spokesman, told reporters.

"Three security officials are shaheed [martyred], 15 injured," he added.

Earlier on Tuesday Pakistani forces stormed the mosque compound in the capital after negotiations to an end a bloody standoff broke down.

Arshad said security forces launched an operation at 4am (23:00 GMT on Monday) "to clear the madrasa of militants".

"The militants are using small arms and grenades. They are in the basement, we have covered the rooftop," he said, adding that the operation was expected to take three or four hours.


http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A2EF9A89-87AB-4F76-927D-2B4A32C1E826.htm

[cbclark4]

Pakistani soldiers storm mosque

Troops in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, have stormed a controversial mosque after talks with hardline Islamists inside broke down.
The army says 40 militants and three soldiers have been killed.

"It is a final push to clear the place of armed militants," said military spokesman Maj Gen Waheed Arshad.

Students at the mosque and its attached religious schools have been defying the authorities for months in their campaign for Sharia law in the capital.

They have kidnapped policemen as well as people they consider to be involved in immoral, un-Islamic activities.

Security forces began a full-scale siege of the mosque last week, not long after mosque students abducted seven Chinese workers they accused of running a brothel.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6286500.stm

[darkhorse_NZ]

[cbclark4]

[cbclark4]

Pakistan militant cleric killed

A militant Pakistani cleric and about 50 of his supporters have been killed after troops stormed a mosque in Islamabad, government officials say.
Abdul Rashid Ghazi's body was found in the Red Mosque basement. Officials said he had been caught in the cross-fire.

The army says eight soldiers were also killed in the military operation, and about 50 women and children rescued.

Students at the mosque and its attached religious schools have waged a campaign for months pressing for Sharia law.

Public anger in the capital had been mounting after they kidnapped policemen as well as people they considered to be involved in immoral, un-Islamic activities.

The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says the military operation is a gamble for President Pervez Musharraf who risks a backlash from supporters of those inside the mosque.

In recent days the army has redeployed thousands of troops in north-western Pakistan where pro-Taleban militants opposed to President Musharraf have been carrying out a string of attacks said to be linked to the mosque siege.

Troops attacked the mosque overnight and took control of most of the complex during heavy fighting which raged as they went from room to room throughout the day.

As darkness fell once more the gunfire died down, though sporadic explosions have been heard.

The military say the operation to take control of the mosque is in its final stages and will continue throughout Tuesday night.


Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said Mr Ghazi was killed as troops were flushing out militants still inside a madrassa (religious school) for women and girls inside the mosque compound.

"He was spotted in the basement and asked to come out. He came out with four or five militants who kept on firing at security forces," Mr Cheema told AFP news agency.

"The troops responded and in the cross-fire he was killed."

Brig Cheema said Mr Ghazi had used a number of women and children as "human shields", although the cleric always denied taking anyone hostage.

Mr Ghazi was deputy leader of the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque). His brother, Maulana Abdul Aziz, who was head, was arrested trying to escape last week dressed in a burka.

Hours before his death, Mr Ghazi accused the authorities of "naked aggression".

"My martyrdom is certain now," he told Pakistan's Geo television station.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6288704.stm

[cbclark4]

RED MOSQUE STAND-OFF
3 July: Clashes erupt at mosque, 16 killed, after long student campaign for Islamic Sharia law
4 July: About 700 students leave mosque, now besieged by security forces; mosque leader caught trying to flee wearing woman's burka
5 July: More than 1,000 students surrender to security forces
6 July: Women are allowed to leave the mosque; students' deputy leader says he would rather die than surrender
8 July: Ministers say wanted militants are holding women and children inside the mosque
9 July: Negotiators talk to mosque leader via loudspeaker without progress; three Chinese workers are killed in Peshawar over siege
10 July: Pakistani troops storm mosque after failure of talks


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6287776.stm

[khyber]

huh...Well, glad to see it all worked out.
Nice work mooshi.

[Adventurer]

As far as that cleric who said his martyrdom was certain, I don't really feel sorry for him. These people espouse poison for Pakistan. I don't like people getting killed, but if they are in the way of progress and using violence and then get killed then it's simply karma.

[cbclark4]

The bullet-riddled walls and roofs of the Red Mosque's interior tell the story of a fierce battle.


The mosque, located in a central district of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, was stormed by troops two days ago to clear out Islamic militants holed up inside.

The government says 10 soldiers, one policeman and 75 militants were killed in the fighting and the week-long standoff that preceded the final assault.

For six months, the halls and rooms of Jamia Hafsa, a women's seminary inside the mosque, were home to a new breed of Islamic hardliners - women clad from head to toe in black Islamic veils, and wielding batons and assault rifles.

They captured a children's library located on one side of the mosque, kidnapped policemen who had strayed too close to the building, and kept vigil on the roofs of the seminary and the adjoining hostel.

Now their classrooms and lecture halls are littered with debris that fell from the walls when the buildings came under fire.

Final assault

An army spokesman says none of these women died during the week-long clashes between the troops and the militants. Apparently, there were no female hostages either.

About 1,200 women and children walked out of the seminary on 4 July, after the troops started a siege of the mosque.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6896192.stm