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Radical Cleric in Pakistan Standoff Captured
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Others were more forgiving. "Everyone has freedom to wear what they'd like," said Siraj-ul-Haq, senior minister in the North-West Frontier Province and a member of a far-right religious party. "If he is wearing pants or shalwar or burqa, it's up to him."
There was no immediate word on the whereabouts of Aziz's brother, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who is the mosque's deputy leader and its public face.
Also unknown was the number of madrassa students who remained inside; leaders have said the school has more than 4,000 students. They have also indicated that the students are well-armed and that some have been trained as suicide bombers.
But one of the students who left the mosque said that is not so. "We don't have any ammunition or anything else," said Rizwana Kausar, 20, who has been studying at the madrassa for two years.
Kausar said there were hundreds of small children in the mosque, many of them orphans.
The madrassa was popular among poor families from the conservative North-West Frontier Province because it offered a free, religious-based education for students growing up in an area where the government has few quality schools.
Anxious parents fearing for their children's safety streamed into Islamabad on Wednesday to retrieve their sons and daughters.
Alam Gul, who lives near the western city of Peshawar, said he sent his son to the school so he could become a religious scholar, not so he could fight and die. Gul blamed the government for putting his son at risk.
"Everybody knows that the government is doing all this for the appeasement of the United States," he said.
Leaders of other madrassas have threatened to use their students against the government if the crackdown on the Red Mosque continues. A total of 14 people were killed Wednesday in two insurgent attacks on security forces, though it was unknown whether they were related to the Red Mosque siege.
"I advise rulers to stop this game of maligning religious madrassas," said Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, leader of one of the country's largest madrassas. "Otherwise it would have dangerous consequences."
Special correspondents Shahzad Khurram in Islamabad and Imtiaz Ali in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
