PAKISTAN: Pakistani commandos blow holes in walls in mosque standoff

There's no end in sight to the Red Mosque siege in Islamabad where President Musharraf has told militant students to surrender or die. Pakistani commandos blasted holes in the walls of a mosque compound on Sunday (July 8) with the aim of helping hundreds of women and children escape from the site where Islamist gunmen are in a standoff with security forces. Troops have surrounded the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in Islamabad since Tuesday (July 3), when clashes between armed student radicals and government forces erupted after months of tension. The death toll from the conflict rose to at least 21 after a lieutenant-colonel died when commandos came under fire from the compound that also houses a girls' madrasa (Islamic religious school) as well as the mosque. Security forces have refrained from mounting a full-scale assault because of fears for the hundreds of women and children who the government says are being held inside as human shields. Troops began blasting holes in the walls in the early hours on Sunday to provide an escape route for those inside. About 1,200 students left the mosque after the clashes began but only about 20 have come out since Friday. Two slipped through the breaches made by the blasts on Sunday to hand themselves in. Government and military officials say revolutionary cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi has between 50-60 hard core militants -- some from al Qaeda-linked Pakistani groups -- leading the fighting. President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday (July 7) gave the militants a 'surrender-or-die' ultimatum. Ghazi retorted by saying he preferred "martyrdom". In a statement, carried by Sunday newspapers, the cleric said he and his followers hoped their deaths would spark an Islamic revolution in Pakistan. His Taliban-style movement is symptomatic of the militancy and extremism seeping into Pakistani cities from tribal areas near the Afghan border. As a result of the continuing tension most of the roads in the vicinity of the mosque are deserted and shopkeepers are concerned for their business. "Obviously, there is no business. How will there be business when people are not coming out of their homes," said one of them, Muhammad Akhtar. The Lal Masjid or Red Mosque has been a hotbed of militancy for years, known for its support for the Taliban in Afghanistan and opposition to Musharraf's backing for the U.S.-led war against terrorism. Many Pakistanis support the action against the hardliners whose behaviour, including a vigilante campaign against perceived vice, raised concern about the spread of militant Islam. Islamist politicians have called for an end to the siege and for Ghazi to send out the women and children.

ITN Source | July 8, 2007

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