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ISLAMABAD : Pakistani forces set off "warning" blasts and smashed down the door of a besieged pro-Taliban mosque Thursday, prompting militant students to hurl grenades as pressure mounted on them to surrender.
The pre-dawn flare-up, which caused no casualties, came hours after the government scored a major coup by arresting the leader of Islamabad's Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, as he tried to flee disguised in a burqa.
Troops and police backed by armoured personnel carriers and helicopters have surrounded the mosque since Tuesday, when clashes started between students and security forces, killing at least 16 people.
"This was a warning. We are giving them time to surrender peacefully," a senior security official near the scene told AFP on condition of anonymity after the series of around seven loud blasts.
"Armoured carriers moved close to the mosque. Explosive charges were detonated, the door was smashed and the carriers then moved back, but we have not entered yet," the official said.
"There has been firing from inside also and two or three hand grenades were thrown from inside the mosque. They blew up without causing any casualties," he said, adding that teargas was also fired.
State television said the students were being told over loudspeakers to lay down their arms "or you will be responsible for any losses."
The gunfire stopped after several minutes because of the call to dawn prayers.
Officials have said a hardcore of around 200 Islamic students and militants -- plus 60 children -- are still holed up in the sprawling mosque compound after about 1,200 surrendered on Wednesday.
They are led by Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the deputy leader of the mosque, who again refused to surrender. He said 2,000 male and female followers were still with him and that morale was high.
"We are not terrorists, so why should we lay down our arms?" Ghazi said. He added that he wanted an "honourable solution to the problem."
Ghazi's brother Abdul Aziz, the mosque's firebrand leader, was caught late Wednesday trying to sneak out among a group of 20 burqa-clad women from the mosque.
"Our men spotted his (Aziz's) unusual demeanour. The rest of the girls looked like girls but he was taller and had a pot belly," a security official said on condition of anonymity.
Paramilitary officer Manzoor Ahmad, who saw the incident, said a policeman spotted one member of the crowd staying silent.
"The officer pounced on the lady, and as he grabbed her, the burqa came off and his beard fell out. He asked the man who he was and he said 'I am Maulana (senior cleric) Abdul Aziz,'" the soldier said.
Television footage showed armed intelligence officials dragging the bearded Aziz towards a black Toyota Corolla and driving away at high speed.
Aziz's daughter and two of the children of his brother, deputy mosque leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi, were also arrested, officials said.
President Pervez Musharraf, already facing a political crisis ahead of elections later this year after ousting the country's chief justice, ordered the crackdown after the mosque tried to set up a Taliban-style justice system.
Those holding out were believed to include Taliban insurgents from the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan and jihadis ('holy warriors') belonging to banned Pakistani sectarian groups.
The mosque's freelance morality campaign in Islamabad included the abduction of police officers and people accused of running brothels -- including seven Chinese -- as well as raids on music and DVD shops.
Musharraf has faced mounting criticism over his failure to crack down on the mosque.
At least 16 people were killed in possible revenge attacks on Wednesday, including six Pakistani soldiers and five civilians in a suicide car bombing in the tribal belt.
Friction with the Red Mosque began in January when its female students took over a government-run children's library. In April the clerics set up an Islamic court that issued a "fatwa" or religious decree against a paragliding female minister.
- AFP/ir
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