Lal Masjid Mosque Fighting Continues

The leader of the group remaining inside the mosque claims that the Pakistani forces have killed 70 of his followers. The government says only 19 were killed. Am I supposed to get worked up over this considering his repeated statements that they're willing to martyr themselves and have been firing back on Pakistani security forces since the crisis at the mosque started earlier this week?

These aren't unarmed civilians here, but rather armed thugs who have remained defiant and refuse to even accept a more than generous amnesty from Musharraf.

The Pakistani government continues to find it unacceptable that someone would try to form a state within a state and force their views on everyone else.

Pakistan's Federal Minister for Political Affairs Amir Muqam Saturday said it was not acceptable to the government that somebody formed a state within the state and imposed his views on others.

Speaking to the state-run PTV, Muqam said that it was unfortunate that some politicians were linking the issue of the Lal Masjid mosque to other political matters.

To a question, he said that the children imprisoned in the mosque were responsibility of the whole nation and the responsibility lay on the administration of Lal Masjid to resolve the issue.

The clerics in the mosque were to blame for the armed confrontation, he said, adding that parents of the children inside the mosque were worried for their safety.

Muqam said that the Aziz brothers had revealed their true face as they were working for their ulterior motives.

One almost gets the feeling that the Aziz brothers wouldn't mind if this situation turns into a Waco-like conflagration where the remaining people are killed in the hopes of becoming martyrs and their status would be cemented among like-minded individuals around the country to rise up against Musharraf and rage against the Western cultural creep.

For his part, Musharraf has taken a harder line, warning that the thugs inside the mosque must surrender or else they would die. That's a switch from yesterday's reports that the government would offer up amnesty. Perhaps the fact that the amnesty was poorly received by the mosque followers suggested that appeasement will get the Pakistani government nowhere.

Pakistani forces have raided a seminary aligned with the Lal Masjid mosque followers and taken dozens prisoner.

'Some fifty students of Jamia Faridia have been taken into custody in an advanced movement in the wake of Lal Majid stand off,' Zafar Iqbal, senior police superintendent, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Jamia Faridia, a male seminary, is located in Islamabad's posh E-7 neighbourhood, some four kilometres from the red mosque complex where hundreds of rebellious students have been holed up for the last five days.

'Jamia Faridia is in our total control, and we did not face any resistance from the students,' Iqbal said.

The seminary was recently abandoned by more than 2,500 students after security forces with heavy military presence laid siege to the fortified compound of Lal Masjid early Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a heavy firefight continued early Saturday at the Red mosque and several blasts were heard.

Paramilitary forces fired several mortar shells into the seminary, where strong resistance was being offered by around several hundred warriors, many believed to be trained by al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

There's also reports that the Pakistani forces blew up the fuel supply of the Lal masjid mosque generators.

Two students were shot and killed by other thugs inside the mosque as they tried to surrender.

UPDATE:
Intense fire reported at the mosque. Are we witnessing the endgame? If those inside claim to want to become martyrs, the Pakistani military certainly seems more than willing to help them achieve that goal.

An intense fire erupted Saturday at the Red Mosque and madrassa where militants and security forces have been engaged in a six-day standoff, NBC News reported.

Pakistani military forces carried out an operation earlier, and walls and infrastructure of the compound have been damaged. No further details were available regarding casualties.

The fire comes hours after President Pervez Musharraf ordered the Islamist militants barricaded inside to surrender or die, while concern grew for hundreds of women and children inside the besieged compound in the Pakistani capital.

The problem is that this Waco-like end, if that indeed is what is happening, may spur others to the Taliban-like cause.

Bill Roggio notes that the Lal masjid supporters are taking on the government elsewhere in Pakistan.