Posted on 07/10/2007 8:20:25 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
More than 50 militants killed in assault on Pakistani mosque
ISLAMABAD, July 10 KYODO
Pakistani security forces stormed Tuesday the compound of a mosque in the Pakistani capital where militant Islamists had barricaded themselves inside, killing more than 50, apparently including the rebel cleric who led the standoff, and wounding about 50 more.
Defense Ministry Spokesman Maj. Gen. Wahid Arshad told a press conference that the army operation had been progressing slowly because militants were still holed up inside the basement and were using women and children as human shields.
Local radio and television reports said rebel cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi was among those killed, but the circumstances of his death remain unclear.
GEO TV, quoting officials of the Interior Ministry, said Ghazi had barricaded himself in a bunker inside the basement of the seminary and was killed along with some of his close associates when he refused to surrender.
Official sources said the operation against the Red Mosque has been almost completed and army personnel was recovering arms and removing injured and dead bodies form the basement of the seminary.
Security officials had stormed the Red Mosque complex at 4 a.m. and it took them nearly 15 hours to clean it of the Islamic militants barricaded inside since early July.
Earlier, Defense Ministry spokesman Arshad said eight security troops were killed and 29 injured in the operation that began after negotiations with the rebel leader failed.
Forty-five militants have also been arrested, he said.
Security forces fairly quickly assumed control of nearly 70 percent of the Red Mosque complex, but resistance continued for hours from the basement of the adjoining seminary for female students and other quarters.
''There are women and children inside the complex. We are taking steps to avoid collateral damage. We are going step by step, room by room, hall by hall,'' Arshad said.
He said earlier that intense fighting was still taking place in the four-story seminary building and that Ghazi was at that time reported to be alive in its basement.
And he denied reports telecast by private television that nerve gas was used to immobilize those barricaded inside the mosque complex.
''We do not have nerve gas. We do not use nerve gas,'' Arshad said, adding he is not in a position to say how many women and children have been taken hostage inside the basement.
According to government information, the militants inside the complex numbered 180.
There were believed to be some 1,000 people, including students, women and children, inside the mosque as ''human shields.''
Since January, the administration of the mosque and female students of the seminary had been campaigning for the imposition of strict Islamic law. They had been supported by militant Islamists and male religious students in Islamabad.
Asked about the fate of the cleric, Arshad said, ''I have no information on his whereabouts.''
Earlier, Ghazi had told private GEO TV by mobile phone that his ''martyrdom'' was imminent.
''I am confined to a room in the basement filled with smoke,'' he said. ''My mother was wounded and is taking her last breath. I want to give a message to the world that my martyrdom is certain.''
It is not known which of the basements of the mosque and the seminary he was hiding in.
Chaudri Shujaat Hussain, who had led a government team in talks with Ghazi until early Tuesday morning, told the television network that foreigners were also holed up inside the complex.
Hussain, head of the 13-member delegation comprising government officials and scholars, said negotiations were complicated by the presence of foreigners.
Hussain, also head of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Q) and a former prime minister, said the negotiations took a new turn when Ghazi raised the question of the fate of the foreigners inside.
Hussain said he felt that Ghazi was not free to take an independent decision.
Arshad had said security forces encountered stiff resistance while trying to break into the building of the mosque and the adjacent religious school. The school caught fire after a series of explosions, witnesses said.
Arshad said commandos have orders not to fire on those who surrender. ''Of course, those who put up resistance would be killed,'' he said.
When security forces entered the compound, 20 children managed to escape and were safe with the troops, he said.
Arshad said militants were using grenades and automatic weapons.
It was reported Monday that President Gen. Pervez Musharraf allowed the security forces to storm the mosque after a meeting of senior government officials Sunday evening.
Maulana Rafi Usmani, head of the group of scholars in the government-named delegation, said Tuesday an agreement was hammered out with the cleric, but it was rejected by Musharraf.
Usmani told GEO TV that the delegation finalized an agreement with the cleric that was approved by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz but rejected by Musharraf.
Militant religious students clashed with security forces on July 3, and 24 people had been killed in the weeklong standoff.
According to the government, 1,250 male and female Muslim students who were barricaded themselves in the mosque and seminary had surrendered by Monday.
==Kyodo
Ping!
It’s SOP for them.
And Satan amuses himself by locking up the jihadists with their leader in a steel cage for a 1000 years after finding no virgins for them.
Where are the honorable Imams who will demand that these loathsome monsters be condemned???
* crickets chirping *
This is a sad day, indeed. Pakistan is out killing “militants” and the body-count is still in the 10’s, instead of the 1000’s, where it should be. Sad for Pakistan. Sad for the world.
BTTT
Just saying.
According to the article, There were believed to be some 1,000 people, including students, women and children, inside the mosque as ''human shields.''
These "students" are trainee terrorists, and these "women" are terrorist enablers.
As the article goes on to say: Since January, the administration of the mosque and female students of the seminary had been campaigning for the imposition of strict Islamic law. They had been supported by militant Islamists and male religious students in Islamabad.
In other words, the females were in the forefront of making demands on the government, and the male militants were acting in support of them.
It's true that women are abused under Islam, yet women are also among Islam's strongest supporters. Call it Stockholm syndrome, if you like.
Commander Killed In Pakistan (Red) Mosque Siege
The Telegraph (UK) | 7-8-2007 | Isambard Wilkinson
Posted on 07/08/2007 9:24:30 PM EDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1862782/posts
Pakistan troops storm Islamabad mosque: military
afp | 09/07/2007 | afp
Posted on 07/09/2007 8:26:04 PM EDT by mdittmar
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1863304/posts
Militants killed in Pakistan mosque raid
news.com.au | 10 July 2007
Posted on 07/09/2007 10:31:59 PM EDT by Aussie Dasher
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1863371/posts
Troops storm Pakistan mosque compound
Yahoo News/AP
Posted on 07/09/2007 11:31:50 PM EDT by nuconvert
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1863403/posts
Pakistan - Attack in progress at Lal Masjid mosque - “Corpses everywhere”
AFP via translation | July 10, 2007
Posted on 07/10/2007 2:10:33 AM EDT by HAL9000
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1863454/posts
Pakistani troops seize Red Mosque-(more info)
ap | 7/10/07 | By ZARAR KHAN, Associated Press Writer
Posted on 07/10/2007 6:28:25 AM EDT by Flavius
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1863485/posts
Yawn .. just yet another day in a neighboring Islamic country.. Ask us, we in India have plenty of them!
I understand that Ghazi used his mother as a human shield and then when she was killed he used her body as a sandbag.
Actually, I think there were Muslim scholars trying to argue this guy out of the mosque.
As for killing thousands of radicals, you should remember there is more sympathy in Pakistan for the Taliban than for the US. Mushie is risking a LOT here.
Every mosque should have 500-600 pounds of C-4 and det cord attached to the door bell.
There were believed to be some 1,000 people, including students, women and children, inside the mosque as ''human shields.''
My “no surprise” ping.
Did you notice the date of the article.
Yeah, I was trying to follow this, wanted to know the outcome of all those women and kids, and never found a report until now.
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