Musharraf under pressure as mosque crisis deepens
PAKISTAN: Facing growing pressure at home and abroad, Pakistan
President Pervez Musharraf was to meet Monday with key security staff in
an attempt to end a deadly stand-off at a pro-Taliban mosque.
The Pakistani government says militants with links to Al-Qaeda have
taken control of the Red Mosque in Islamabad and are holding hundreds of
women and children as human shields to deter a full army assault.
The stand-off between the security forces and militants at the mosque
has left at least 20 people dead over the past week, and local
television said Sunday Musharraf had authorized a final assault on the
complex.
"The meeting on Monday will review options to secure safe release of
stranded women and children from the mosque," a senior government
official told AFP.
Government officials said they feared the militants could execute
some of the civilians inside the mosque complex.
"We know they cannot fight with the army for long, but we know they
can kill hundreds inside by suicide bombing after being stormed," an
interior ministry official told AFP.
Troops have the complex surrounded and have been repeatedly calling
on militants inside to surrender through loudspeakers. They have also
blown holes in the walls to help people inside escape.
As the stand-off entered a seventh day Musharraf faced calls from
opposition leaders in London to step down. The All Parties Conference (APC)
said his rule had brought the country "to the edge of a precipice".
His government also faced pressure from close ally Beijing to do more
to protect Chinese nationals in Pakistan after three Chinese workers
were shot dead by suspected Islamic militants in the northern city of
Peshawar.
A fourth Chinese man was wounded in the raid at their residence in
what security sources termed an apparent revenge attack over the mosque
siege.
In a statement, China's ambassador Luo Zhaohui told Pakistan "round
up the culprits, properly handle the follow-up issues and take effective
measures to protect all the Chinese in Pakistan."
Students affiliated to the Red Mosque mosque have challenged the
government since January with a Taliban-style anti-vice campaign, which
has involved the abduction of several people they linked to
prostitution, including seven Chinese.
Security officials said the mosque militants included two Pakistani
commanders from Harkatul-Jihad-e-Islami, a group linked to the beheading
of US journalist Daniel Pearl and 2003 attempts to kill President
Musharraf.
Fifteen militants have been issued with suicide jackets, one senior
official said, citing intercepts.
A mosque source identified the leader of the Harkatul-Jihad-e-Islami
militants in the mosque as Abu Zar, a former accomplice of Farooqi, who
was killed by security forces in 2004.
Militants also shot at the legs of three girls who escaped, interior
minister Aftab Sherpao told reporters.
The government on Sunday released the first batch of 152 teenage male
Islamic students who were detained after leaving the mosque.
Prime Minister Aziz reiterated the government's call for the
militants to release stranded men, women and children allegedly being
held as human shields and surrender. Ghazi, 43, remained defiant.
He and his followers have written wills saying that they would die
rather than surrender, and that "martyrdom" would spark an Islamic
revolution in extremism-hit Pakistan, a source at the mosque told AFP.
"Our blood will not go to waste," Ghazi's will said.
Islamabad, Monday AFP
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