Hundreds Still Inside, Pakistani Officials Say
By Griff Witte
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, July 7, 2007;
A10
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 6 -- Security forces ringing a besieged mosque pummeled Islamic radicals with gunfire on Friday, as concern grew that many of those still inside -- including children -- were being held against their will.
Although more than 1,200 people have fled the mosque since the siege began Tuesday, authorities estimated that several hundred remain within. Only a few dozen are suspected to be hard-core radicals; others appear to want to leave but have been prevented from doing so.
The government has refrained from launching a full-scale invasion of the mosque compound, even though the militants are believed to be severely outgunned. In the meantime, thousands of heavily armed rangers and commandos have formed a tight cordon around the compound.
Clerics at the pro-Taliban Red Mosque, also called the Lal Masjid, want to turn Pakistan into a theocracy. During the past few months, students at an affiliated madrassa, or religious school, have abducted alleged prostitutes and forced them to confess and threatened video store owners with attacks. On Tuesday, a clash between the radicals and government forces left at least 19 people dead.
The government of President Pervez Musharraf has wrestled for months with how to respond but is now demanding that the radicals surrender unconditionally.
After indicating Thursday night that he would leave the mosque peacefully, firebrand cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi said in a televised interview Friday that he had decided to fight to the death. "We can be martyred, but we will not court arrest," he said.
Ghazi's older brother, Maulana Abdul Aziz, was arrested Wednesday night as he attempted to flee the mosque disguised in a burqa. He has since been subjected to nationwide ridicule, with newspapers dubbing him "Auntie Aziz."
Supplies are rumored to be running low in the mosque and in the adjacent madrassa, and Tariq Azim Khan, the state information minister, said the government's approach going forward would be "to tire them out, not fire them out." The strategy, he said, was designed to allow more people to give up before security forces attempt a raid. But militants on Friday tried to thwart those plans.
About 1 p.m., a contingent of family members of those still inside approached the mosque hoping to retrieve their loved ones. Instead, they were met with gunfire. At least one person was slightly wounded in the attack.
"They said, 'We will not hand over your children,' and they fired on us," said Yasar Shah, who came to Islamabad from a village in western Pakistan. "My sister is in there. I have to get her back."
A young woman named Attia, her eyes downcast and her face etched with pain, said that only one of her three young children in the mosque had come out, despite her attempts to get them all back. The two who remain inside are 5 and 9 years old.
She said she sent her children to the madrassa because her husband was addicted to drugs and she lacked the money to feed or house them. "I sent them here to study," said Attia, who goes by one name. "Now I don't know whether they are alive or not."
Later in the day, some students were able to leave the mosque, but government officials said Ghazi appeared to be keeping the rest as a way of forestalling an all-out assault.
"The cleric inside is using these children as hostages," said Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, a military spokesman.
Not everyone is desperate to get to their loved ones. "If my sister dies, she will be a martyr, and we will be happy," said Mohammad Khalid, who stood with other family members outside the mosque Friday afternoon. "We are here to take her body back."
The siege in normally placid Islamabad has become an emblem in Pakistan for a broader struggle against the growing threat of extremism. Musharraf, considered a key U.S. counterterrorism ally, has taken extraordinary criticism from Pakistani moderates, who feel his refusal to turn the country back over to civilian leadership after eight years of military rule has fostered greater radicalism. But Islamic terrorist groups have their own problems with Musharraf.
On Friday, unknown assailants fired a submachine gun from an urban rooftop at Musharraf's plane, though the shots did not come close and security officials said they did not regard the attack as a serious assassination attempt.
Investigators later recovered the gun -- along with two antiaircraft weapons that had apparently not been fired -- from a home in Rawalpindi, just outside the capital, Arshad said.
The home was located a mile or two from the air force base where Musharraf's plane took off Friday morning as he left on a tour of flood-affected areas in the nation's south. Police were still searching Friday evening for whoever fired the weapon.
Musharraf has survived assassination attempts by extremist groups in the past. It was not immediately clear whether Friday's attack was connected to the siege at the Red Mosque.
Also on Friday, four soldiers, including two officers, were killed in a suicide attack in an area of western Pakistan that is known as a militant stronghold.
Special correspondents Shahzad Khurram in Islamabad and Imtiaz Ali in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
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