A government delegation led by a former prime minister arrived
at the besieged Red Mosque yesterday in an attempt to negotiate an
end to the seven-day standoff in the capital, a senior official
said.
The delegation, led by former Premier Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain
and including several religious scholars, swept through an army
cordon around the mosque in a fleet of vehicles early evening.
"We have come here to play our role to resolve the issue. We
hope that all these women and children who are inside should be
allowed to come out," Hussain told reporters.
Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said the delegation would
address the mosque leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi using loudspeakers
because it was too dangerous to go inside the mosque.
There was no indication what incentives the negotiators would
offer to Ghazi, who officials say is holed up in the mosque with
dozens of armed militants as well as about 150 hostages.
Ghazi says he and his followers prefer martyrdom to
surrender.
The decision to give negotiations rather than an all-out assault
a chance to work came after President General Pervez Musharraf held
a high-level meeting on how to resolve the crisis.
Security officials, who demanded anonymity because they were not
authorized to speak to the media, said among the mediators would be
Taqi Usmani, one of Ghazi's former teachers.
Some clerics, including Usmani, had earlier attempted without
success to persuade Ghazi to end the siege peacefully. The
government claims the mosque is being defended by wanted
terrorists.
A group of about 20 lawmakers from radical religious parties
were stopped by soldiers from approaching the mosque as intense
gunfire again erupted in the area mid-afternoon. The group was
attempting to also act as mediators.
A mosque spokesman, meanwhile, claimed hundreds of men and women
died in a military assault on the mosque and adjoining Islamic
school for women.
It was impossible to verify this or the claim of terrorist
involvement in the escalating battle of gunfire and rhetoric
between the government and the defenders of the mosque.
Musharraf sent in troops last Wednesday, a day after supporters
of the mosque's radical clerics fought gunbattles with security
forces sent to contain their campaign to impose Taliban-style rule
in the capital.
At least 24 people have died so far, including a special forces
commando shot as the military blasted holes in the walls of the
fortified compound. Officials said they hoped young students
allegedly being held hostage in the mosque could use the gaps to
escape.
"Whenever I hear the sounds of bullets I feel that my sister has
been harmed. We appeal to the government, we appeal to Ghazi, we
appeal to everyone. I want my sister back," said Maqir Abbasi, who
had come to the military barricades around the mosque to seek news
of his 22-year-old sister, Yasmin.
Abbasi said that his sister, a student at the seminary, was
among the hostages.
The siege sparked an anti-government protest yesterday by some
20,000 tribesmen, including hundreds of masked militants wielding
assault rifles, in the northwest region of Bajur.
(China Daily via agencies July 10, 2007)
