International Herald Tribune
Clerics given more time to negotiate end of deadly siege in Pakistan The Associated Press Published: July 9, 2007
ISLAMABAD: President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan on Monday gave clerics more time to persuade defiant militants to lay down their arms and surrender a mosque they have defended against thousands of government troops, security officials said.
The decision came at a high-level meeting on how to end the weeklong armed resistance at the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in the heart of the capital.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters, said one of the mediators would be Taqi Usmani, a former teacher of the besieged mosque's senior cleric, Abdul Rashid Ghazi.
Some clerics, including Usmani, have attempted without success to persuade Ghazi to end the siege peacefully since the crisis erupted. The government claims the mosque is being defended by wanted terrorists.
A group of about 20 lawmakers from radical religious parties were stopped by soldiers from approaching the mosque as intense gunfire erupted again in the area midafternoon. The group was also attempting to act as mediators.
A mosque spokesman, meanwhile, asserted that 305 men and women died in a military assault on the mosque and an adjoining Islamic school on Saturday night, the local Geo television channel reported.
It was impossible to verify either claim in the escalating battle of gunfire and rhetoric between the government and the defenders of Islamabad's Red Mosque.
Musharraf sent in troops last Wednesday, a day after supporters of the mosque's radical clerics fought gunbattles with security forces sent to contain their campaign to impose Taliban-style rule in the capital.
At least 24 people have died so far, including a special forces commando shot as the military blasted holes in the walls of the fortified compound. Officials said they hoped hundreds of students allegedly being held hostage in the mosque could use the gaps to escape.
The siege sparked an anti-government protest on Monday by about 20,000 tribesmen, including hundreds of masked militants wielding assault rifles, in the northwest region of Bajur.
Many chanted "Death to Musharraf" and "Death to America" in a rally led by Maulana Faqir Mohammed, a cleric wanted by the authorities and who is believed to be a close lieutenant of Al Qaeda's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Religious Affairs Minister Ejaz ul-Haq said that terrorists, including a suspect in a plot against Pakistan's prime minister, were in control of the mosque.
"I can only tell you they are involved in many terrorist activities inside and outside" Pakistan, Haq said. "And there are a few who are very renowned, very well known, more well known than Al Qaeda and the Taliban."
Haq provided no details. However, Musharraf has said that members of Jaish-e-Mohammed, a radical group with links to Al Qaeda, was involved. A military official who said he was not allowed to speak on the record, said intercepts of telephone calls from the mosque indicated the defenders also had links to Harkat Jihad-e-Islami.
"The very fact that they can use heavy automatic weapons with some expertise shows that they are not just ordinary 14-, 15-year-old students," said Tariq Azim, a government spokesman.
The Chinese Embassy on Monday condemned the killing of three Chinese workers in northwestern Pakistan, urging the authorities to investigate the attack, The Associated Press reported from Islamabad. The three died when gunmen opened fire inside an auto-rickshaw factory in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Sunday. A fourth Chinese was seriously wounded.
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