The Pakistani army was preparing to storm a pro-Taliban mosque in central Islamabad early on Wednesday morning, after a day of vicious street battles had left at least 12 people dead and 150 wounded.
A column of troops and armoured vehicles moved towards Lal Masjid, or the Red Mosque, where the electricity had been cut off and a curfew imposed. A government minister warned hundreds of armed students holed up inside to surrender. ”We ask them to lay down their arms. But if anyone comes out with weapons, he will be answered with bullets,” Deputy Interior Minister Zafar Waraich told a midnight press conference.
The dramatic siege was the culmination of months of simmering tension between authorities and the radical students, whose anti-vice campaign — including kidnapping alleged prostitutes and burning films — has embarrassed the President, Pervez Musharraf.
Heavy gunfire echoed across the capital from midday after a clash at a security checkpost triggered a five-hour gun battle. Masked students hid behind sandbags on the mosque roof, firing at police and rangers in the surrounding streets.
Security forces returned a barrage of bullets and teargas shells. From the mosque loudspeaker a voice urged students to prepare for suicide bombings.
Hospital officials confirmed 12 people dead including at least four students, several civilians, a soldier, and a journalist. Mosque authorities claimed a higher toll.
The violence turned one corner of the placid city into a war zone. Volleys of bullets whipped through the trees in a central district near the Parliament and supreme court. Lines of soldiers scurried through alleyways and at least three journalists were wounded in the crossfire.
A thick plume of smoke rose in the sky after students torched two nearby government buildings, including the ministry of the environment, and set cars ablaze. They also ransacked a girls’ school.
A black flag depicting two crossed swords and a verse from the Qur’an — similar to the Taliban standard — fluttered from the mosque rooftop. Inside, young men brandished rifles and pistols and some wore gasmasks. Burqa-clad female students huddled in prayer, some apparently preparing for martyrdom.
Unusually, a woman led prayers in the main mosque, a red-walled building with a white dome. She called on ”the angels” to help them defeat Musharraf. Other terrified young students fled for safety, some rescued by relatives. ”We sent her to Lal Masjid for an education,” said one woman preparing to dash inside to fetch her 20-year-old sister. ”We do not like terrorism. We are for peace.”
The radical preacher who runs Lal Masjid, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, changed his tone from conciliation to threats of extreme violence as the afternoon wore on. Among passers-by sheltering behind trees on the streets outside, opinions were divided.
One young man said the president deserved to be ousted. ”Musharraf, dog!” he said in broken English, making a woofing noise.
Shahid Hayat, a 20-year-old business student, supported the president. ”This is not good, it is hurting our country’s reputation,” he said. ”It’s hurting Islam.”
After evening prayers, Shah Abdul Aziz, a conservative parliamentarian wearing a black turban, emerged from the mosque to declare a ceasefire. Musharraf should ”see these students as his own children,” he said on the way out. ”War is not a solution.”
Hours later sporadic gunfire rang out again. An armoured vehicle left a temporary army base in the national sports stadium and trundled towards the mosque. At 4am soldiers on loudhailers warned all women and children to leave.
One government official, describing the mosque as a ”cult”, said that decisive army action might be necessary to avoid a ”Waco-style” siege — a reference to the death of 78 people in Texas in 1993.
The media was kept at a distance. There were reports of clashes between other radicals and police in the Swat Valley, about 190km to the north. Reached by telephone, Abdul Rashid Ghazi refused to comment. ”You can judge for yourself,” he said.
Backstory
The Red Mosque is at the heart of fears that ”Talibanisation” is spreading in Pakistan. Its students have tried to violently impose their strict social code on the capital by abducting prostitutes, threatening CD shop owners and defying police. They are led by brothers Abdul Rashid Ghazi and Abdul Aziz, who boast of meeting Osama bin Laden. Until Tuesday Musharraf was reluctant to take them on, saying he feared violence could spread. But critics accuse him of manipulating the crisis to bolster support among Western allies. – Guardian Unlimited Â