A total of 102 people lost their lives during the Lal Masjid
military operation, a Pakistani official said Friday.
These include 11 officials of the law enforcement agencies and
91 civilians both inside and outside the Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa
complex in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, Interior Minister
Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao told a news conference.
He said that 75 bodies were recovered from the mosque and the
seminary. And three bodies of students from the tribal region of
Bajaur were handed over to their relatives while 71 had been buried
at an Islamabad graveyard.
He said all the bodies were photographed, finger-printed,
samples for DNA test taken, bathed, wrapped in shrouds and buried
after their funeral.
"Their graves would be identified and it would be up to their
relatives whether they want them buried there or transfer them to
ancestral areas," he said.
Sherpao said that 248 injured were taken to hospitals including
officials and civilians. Of them, there are only 27 injured in the
Pakistan Institute of Medical Science, Islamabad while others have
been discharged after first aid.
And 44 injured from the law enforcement agencies have been
admitted in military hospital in Rawalpindi, some 30 kilometers
south of Islamabad.
He said that photographs of four or five persons resembled those
of foreigners but their identities would be established after DNA
test and other investigations.
There were 242 people still in custody and the process of
debriefing was continuing, he said.
Sherpao said that curfew would be lifted Saturday from G-6
sector of Islamabad and lists of all those killed, injured, under
detention and released would be displayed at the center established
in the Sports Complex in Islamabad. He said that the Lal Masjid and
Jamia Hafsa complex would, however, remain cordoned off.
He said that lists of those killed, injured, under detention and
released would also be uploaded on the website of the Interior
Ministry Friday night.
(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2007)
