| |
ISLAMABAD - Pakistani troops early Tuesday launched a massive operation against a cleric and his militant followers holed up in an Islamabad mosque after negotiations failed, a top military official said.
President Pervez Musharraf authorised the storming of the pro-Taliban Red Mosque, led by radical mullah Abdul Rashid Ghazi, after an eight-day siege which has already cost 24 lives.
Huge blasts rocked the fortified compound and the sound of heavy gunfire could be heard. There was no immediate word on casualties from the raid but at least 24 people have died in the standoff since July 3.
Authorities made announcements on loudspeakers urging residents in the surrounding area to stay inside for their safety, while large plumes of white smoke spread over the mosque complex.
"The troops are now inside the mosque, they are at the roof top," military spokesman Major General Arshad Waheed told AFP.
"It is a final push to clear the place of armed militants," he said, adding that the rebels were putting up stiff resistance.
Ministers have accused cleric Ghazi and his followers, who are said to include foreign fighters and Pakistani insurgents linked to Al-Qaeda, of holding women and children in the Red Mosque as human shields.
Minutes before the raid top government negotiator Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, a former Pakistani premier, announced the failure of talks with Ghazi.
"After 11 hours of negotiations we are deeply disappointed that the talks did not succeed," he told a news conference near the Red Mosque. "We are returning in disappointment."
"We talked to Abdul Rashid Ghazi by telephone and asked him that he should think of innocent women and children stranded inside the mosque but he said he will look into it later," he said.
He said Ghazi and his supporters had asked him and other members of the negotiating team to delay the matter.
A dense cloud of smoke rose from the complex as the raid progressed.
Waheed said troops had entered the building from three sides.
"The militants are firing at them. Our effort is to get hold of them as soon as possible and save the lives of unarmed people inside," Waheed said.
"Our effort is to finish the operation as quickly as possible with minimum loss of life."
Tensions at the mosque began several months ago when its students launched an anti-vice campaign in a quest to bring in Islamic law. Several people have been kidnapped, accused of involvement in prostitution, including seven Chinese.
Bitter street battles broke out on July 3 between police and the mosque's radical students, and it has been surrounded under a 24-hour shoot-on-sight curfew ever since.
Fears of a bloodbath had kept Musharraf from launching a full-scale raid to end the standoff.
"Last-ditch" negotiations involving Hussain, four ministers and 11 top clerics were held on Tuesday using loudspeakers and mobile telephones because Ghazi did not want to leave the compound.
Ghazi said earlier that he had written his will in which he hoped his "martyrdom" would spark an Islamic revolution in Pakistan, where Musharraf has fought a bloody battle with extremism since 2001.
Ghazi's brother, mosque leader Abdul Aziz, was caught on Wednesday while trying to flee the fortified complex dressed in a woman's burqa.
Officials have said that militant commanders are inside, including some from the extremist group Harkatul-Jihad-e-Islami, which has been accused of involvement in the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl and an attempt to kill Musharraf.
Religious Affairs Minister Ijaz-ul Haq said on Sunday that Ghazi had effectively lost control of the situation inside the mosque, and the resistance was now being run by the rebels.
The government's patience began to run short on Sunday when a commando from Musharraf's own elite special forces group was killed while trying to free the women and children. - AFP/ir
|
