February 11, 2009 4:36 PM
- Text
Explosions Rock Besieged Pakistani Mosque
(CBS/AP)
Gunfire and explosions rocked a besieged radical mosque in Pakistan's capital on Thursday as militants holed up in the complex snubbed a plea from their captured leader to surrender.
Paramilitary troops deployed around the mosque used low intensity explosives and teargas to force the hardliners to lay down their arms, while troops delivered periodic messages over loudspeakers urging militants to surrender, reports CBS News' Farhan Bokhari.
Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said troops were trying to blast holes in the walls of the fortress-like compound of the mosque and an adjoining seminary for girls.
Soldiers backed by armored vehicles and helicopters surrounded the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, before dawn on Wednesday, a day after the start of clashes between security forces and radical followers of the mosque that have killed 19 people.
The violence brought to a head a six-month standoff between Pakistan's U.S.-backed government and its top cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz, who has challenged President Gen. Pervez Musharraf with a drive to impose Taliban-style Islamic law in the city.
The government, keen to avoid a bloodbath that would damage Musharraf's already embattled administration, said it would not storm the mosque so long as women and children remained inside.
However, several explosions rocked the area during a period of intense gunfire before dusk on Thursday, sending a plume of black smoke into the sky.
A leader inside the mosque accused troops of firing several mortar rounds that had killed 27 female students.
"A large section of the mosque is damaged and fires have broken out in the Jamia Hafsa (seminary)," Abdul Qayyum told The Associated Press by telephone.
"It's total chaos here. There is smoke everywhere and a fire in the room where we were keeping dead bodies" from earlier skirmishes, he said, coughing repeatedly.
Sherpao insisted no mortars were fired and that the alleged casualties were "just their claims."
The shooting later eased and the smoke cleared.
Officials said they were using helicopters and explosions to shatter the nerves of the mosque defenders and induce a surrender.
"We are using restraint on instructions from the president so that people surrender voluntarily," Sherpao said.
Aziz, who was captured Wednesday evening as he tried to slip through the army cordon disguised in a woman's burqa and high heels, said on state television that as many as 700 women and about 250 men remained inside the complex, armed with more than a dozen AK-47 assault rifles.
"If they can get out quietly they should go, or they can surrender if they want to," Aziz said. "I saw after coming out that the siege is very intense ... Our companions will not be able to stay for long."
His comments raised the prospect of a swift resolution and a victory for Musharraf, who is under growing pressure at home and abroad over spreading extremism and his botched attempt to fire Pakistan's chief justice.
But the cleric's brother, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, remained inside the mosque with followers and said there was no reason to give in.
Ghazi denied claims by officials that he was hiding in a cellar and using young students as human shields. He said all those in the mosque were volunteers.
"Why should we surrender? We are not criminals. How can we force those out who don't want to leave?" Ghazi, the mosque's deputy leader, told AP by telephone.
Qayyum, Ghazi's aide, declined to comment on the statement from Aziz or to describe living conditions inside the mosque, where power and water have been cut off for days.
Paramilitary troops deployed around the mosque used low intensity explosives and teargas to force the hardliners to lay down their arms, while troops delivered periodic messages over loudspeakers urging militants to surrender, reports CBS News' Farhan Bokhari.
Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said troops were trying to blast holes in the walls of the fortress-like compound of the mosque and an adjoining seminary for girls.
Soldiers backed by armored vehicles and helicopters surrounded the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, before dawn on Wednesday, a day after the start of clashes between security forces and radical followers of the mosque that have killed 19 people.
The violence brought to a head a six-month standoff between Pakistan's U.S.-backed government and its top cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz, who has challenged President Gen. Pervez Musharraf with a drive to impose Taliban-style Islamic law in the city.
The government, keen to avoid a bloodbath that would damage Musharraf's already embattled administration, said it would not storm the mosque so long as women and children remained inside.
However, several explosions rocked the area during a period of intense gunfire before dusk on Thursday, sending a plume of black smoke into the sky.
A leader inside the mosque accused troops of firing several mortar rounds that had killed 27 female students.
"A large section of the mosque is damaged and fires have broken out in the Jamia Hafsa (seminary)," Abdul Qayyum told The Associated Press by telephone.
"It's total chaos here. There is smoke everywhere and a fire in the room where we were keeping dead bodies" from earlier skirmishes, he said, coughing repeatedly.
Sherpao insisted no mortars were fired and that the alleged casualties were "just their claims."
The shooting later eased and the smoke cleared.
Officials said they were using helicopters and explosions to shatter the nerves of the mosque defenders and induce a surrender.
"We are using restraint on instructions from the president so that people surrender voluntarily," Sherpao said.
Aziz, who was captured Wednesday evening as he tried to slip through the army cordon disguised in a woman's burqa and high heels, said on state television that as many as 700 women and about 250 men remained inside the complex, armed with more than a dozen AK-47 assault rifles.
"If they can get out quietly they should go, or they can surrender if they want to," Aziz said. "I saw after coming out that the siege is very intense ... Our companions will not be able to stay for long."
His comments raised the prospect of a swift resolution and a victory for Musharraf, who is under growing pressure at home and abroad over spreading extremism and his botched attempt to fire Pakistan's chief justice.
But the cleric's brother, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, remained inside the mosque with followers and said there was no reason to give in.
Ghazi denied claims by officials that he was hiding in a cellar and using young students as human shields. He said all those in the mosque were volunteers.
"Why should we surrender? We are not criminals. How can we force those out who don't want to leave?" Ghazi, the mosque's deputy leader, told AP by telephone.
Qayyum, Ghazi's aide, declined to comment on the statement from Aziz or to describe living conditions inside the mosque, where power and water have been cut off for days.
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Scott Conroy Scott Conroy is a National Political Reporter for RealClearPolitics and a contributor for CBS News.
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