PAKISTAN: Up to 50 people killed as Pakistani military storm Islamabad mosque

Parents wept outside Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islambad as Pakistani forces stormed the mosque compound to end a week-long standoff with Islamist militants. At least 50 militants and eight soldiers have been killed and a military spokesman says troops are fighting their way through the 75-room complex. Pakistani forces stormed a mosque compound on Tuesday (July 10), killing about 50 militants, as they fought their way through an Islamic school where they believed a rebel cleric was hiding with women and children hostages. The military said eight soldiers were killed and 29 wounded, while 50 militants were captured or surrendered. The assault to end the week-long standoff began an hour before dawn. The operation at Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, was still in progress 10 hours after it began. Outside the mosque, distraught parents wept openly as they watched smoke rising from the compound. Jamila Bibi, whose 18-year-old son was still trapped in the mosque, murmured prayers under her breath, while her husband sat beside her, wiping away tears with his scarf. Bibi said she had last heard from her son on Friday (July 6). "No, he did not say anything. There may have be something but he did not tell us. Perhaps he thought that mother will get upset. So my son said nothing. He just said, 'Mother, I am happy'," she said. Ambulances rushed injured people to hospital. Military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi had barricaded himself in a basement room in the madrasa. There were more than 70 rooms and the basements in the sprawling mosque-school complex, and the militants were armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, Arshad said. "Militants have, are taking position in almost every room. They're fighting from room to room. They have positions in the basement, on the stairs, on the verandahs, and they are in a complex that has more than 75 rooms and basements and large courtyards. It does take time," he said. It was not known how many people might be left inside, but the religious affairs minister said on Sunday (July 8) there were between 200 and 500, including women and children. The government has been demanding radical cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi and his 50 or 60 hardcore of fighters, who authorities say include wanted militants, surrender unconditionally or die. Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema said the decision to storm the mosque was taken after talks with the militants broke down around 3:30 a.m. "I would not go into the details of, you know, of the whole dialogue that went on, but there was a total breakdown at 3:30 in the morning and that was the time that the government decided that it is time, that we mounted the operation," said Cheema. Ghazi has said that he prefers martyrdom to surrender. He said he and the followers of his Taliban-style movement hoped their deaths would spark an Islamic revolution.

ITN Source | July 10, 2007

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