Militants Surrounded At Pakistan Mosque

A deadline set by Pakistan's government Wednesday for Islamic militants holed up inside a besieged mosque in the capital city to surrender came and went without any sign that the armed extremists would lay down their weapons.

Clashes between the militants and Pakistani security forces Tuesday left at least nine people dead, a government spokesman said.

The militants had until 11 a.m. (0200 Eastern) to lay down their arms and surrender, said Anwar Mahmood, the top official at the Information Ministry.

The call, which was ignored, came after a day of bloody clashes in Islamabad at the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, between security forces and militants living inside the sprawling mosque compound.

CBS News' Farhan Bokhari reported the government extended the deadline by one hour in a last-ditch effort to avoid violence, but that deadline also passed without any apparent resolution. Bokhari reported Tuesday that any siege by security forces on the mosque was expected to be bloody.

Armored personnel carriers used by the Pakistani military were deployed near the mosque Wednesday morning, and witnesses said frequent gunfire was heard from the neighborhood surrounding the mosque Wednesday morning.

Overnight, military and paramilitary troops as well as police were surrounded the mosque and a nearby women's seminary known as Jamia Hifza, reported Bokhari.

Pakistan's U.S.-allied military president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, imposed a curfew surrounding the two locations after the violence on Tuesday.

Government troops gave the order for the militants to surrender on loudspeakers Wednesday morning. In return, the well-armed people inside the mosque used their own loudspeaker system to counter the message, promising to defend themselves.

Meanwhile, Pakistani officials said Wednesday that at least five soldiers and five civilians had been killed by a suicide bomber who rammed his car into a military convoy near the border with Afghanistan.

There was no connection made immediately between the suicide attack and the unfolding situation at the mosque in Islamabad, reported Bokhari.

The militant Islamic group holed-up in the Red Mosque has in the past vowed to defend themselves with suicide attacks.

A military truck was hit by the suicide bomber in Bannu, a city in the volatile Northwestern Frontier province. The province has been a breeding ground for Islamic hardliners and a refuge for members of al Qaeda and the Taliban fleeing U.S. and Afghan forces operating across the border in Afghanistan, Bokhari said.

The violence at the Red Mosque dramatically deepened a six-month standoff at the building, whose hardline clerics have kidnapped alleged prostitutes and police officers in their efforts to impose a Taliban-style version of Islamic law in the capital.

Deputy Interior Minister Zafar Warriach said four students, three civilians, one soldier and a journalist were among those killed Tuesday. Clerics at the mosque claimed 10 of their supporters were killed, according to a lawmaker sent to mediate the dispute.

Warriach said 148 people were injured; most of them by tear gas fired by security forces.

The clash at the mosque has underlined the concern over the spread of Islamic extremism in a country struggling to combat Taliban and al Qaeda militants.