Lal Masjid Mosque Siege Continues

The captured leader of the Taliban inspired (and led) Lal Masjid mosque, who was captured after trying to escape wearing a burqa, has called on the thousands of followers still holed up in the mosque to either surrender or escape.

The comments from Maulana Abdul Aziz -- head cleric of the Red Mosque, or Lal Masjid -- indicated that the bloody standoff in the heart of Islamabad might soon end without further bloodshed.

While sporadic gunfire could be heard around the mosque Thursday, no large-scale fighting was reported.

The violence erupted Tuesday when militant students streamed out of the mosque to confront security forces sent there after the kidnapping of six Chinese women alleged to be prostitutes.

The brief abduction of the women drew a protest from Beijing, and proved to be the last straw following a string of provocations by the mosque stretching back six months.

Aziz has challenged the government with a drive to impose Taliban-style Islamic law in the city. The long-simmering tensions between the government and the clerics exploded into fierce fighting during a daylong battle on Tuesday, with security forces and student followers of the mosque squaring off. Officials reported at least 16 people killed and scores injured.

On Wednesday, the Pakistani army surrounded the mosque, determined to end the actions by the clerics and students.

Aziz was nabbed Wednesday evening after a female police officer checking women fleeing the mosque tried to search his body, which was concealed by a full-length black burqa.

In an interview with state-run Pakistan Television after his arrest, Aziz said that as many as 700 women and about 250 men remained inside the mosque compound and an adjacent women's seminary, some armed with more than a dozen AK-47 assault rifles provided by ''friends.''

Highly armed friends at that. And it turns out that those friends are jihadi groups with common interests:

"If they can get out quietly, they should go, or they can surrender if they want to," he said. "I saw after coming out that the siege is very intense...our companions will not be able to stay for long," he said.

Wearing the same 'burqa' in which he was caught while trying to escape, Aziz asked his younger bother Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who is currently leading the resistance to come out of the besieged mosque and seminary.

Without naming militants of banned militant group Jaishe-e-Muhammad who according to President Pervez Musharraf have infiltrated into the mosque and taken over its defences, Aziz said that some others than the students of the madrasas attached to the mosque were present inside.

He said he received sympathies from banned Jehadi groups besides receiving limited financial assistance from abroad.

"Our objective was to pressurise the government," he said and admitted that they instilled the spirit of 'Jehad' among the students.

Once again, we see family ties heading up jihadi/Islamist groups that are intent upon imposing Islam on those who don't believe the same way they do.

Once again, this is not the spiritual journey version of jihad, but the guns and bombs version. And these Islamists are not above rioting with the Pakistani government to get their way.

Gateway Pundit has more, including the fact that the mosque played home to suicide bomber training. Al Qaeda also has a role in all this.

UPDATE:
In the midst of reports of renewed explosions around the mosque, there is a report that the thugs inside the mosque are holding children as human shields.

Pakistan's Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim Khan said the few students who had quit the mosque on Thursday had spoken of a nightmare scenario for security forces trying to keep casualties to a minimum.

"A large number of women and children are being held hostage by armed men in a room," Khan told a news conference, adding that the brother of the captured cleric was hiding in the basement of an attached madrasa with 25 "women hostages".

"Yes, they're using them as human shields, because the people who have come out, they told us that they're telling women and children not to worry because as long you're here forces will not attack us," he said.

Repugnant. Simply repugnant. These terrorist-sympathizers have no concept of human rights and will entertain any kind of violence so long as it furthers their own agenda.

UPDATE:
Bill Roggio notes that the initial breach of the mosque's perimeter by the Pakistani forces may have begun, though it may have been a show of force designed to get those inside to see the futility of fighting.

UPDATE:
Well, according to MSNBC heavy gunfire is being heard in the vicinity of the mosque and the attached girls' madrassa.

UPDATE:
Some of the Pakistani military buildup around the mosque:


UPDATE:
Photos from the epicenter of the fighting can be found here.

UPDATE:
Those inside the mosque are making demands. They say they'll leave the mosque peacefully if they are not arrested and other demands are met. Right. After starting a running battle with Pakistani forces, they want to get off scot-free.

But the cleric's brother, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, remained inside the mosque with their die-hard followers and rejected the government's call for an unconditional surrender.

Speaking by phone to Pakistan's Geo news channel, Ghazi demanded a guarantee they would not be arrested and said authorities must let him move his mother and sister-in-law out of the complex to safety.

He denied claims by officials that he was using young students as human shields. "The charges against me are forged and fabricated," he said. "The government has been reduced to callousness."

Qayyum, Ghazi's aide, declined to comment on the statement from Aziz or to describe living conditions in the compound, where power and water had been cut off for days.

Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim said earlier that some of the 1,100 supporters who had fled the mosque and seminary told officials that Ghazi retreated to a cellar along with 20 female "hostages" and that the holdouts had "large quantities of automatic weapons." Officials said the militants also had hand grenades, explosives and homemade gasoline bombs.

Azim said there would be no more negotiations.

"Enough time has already been wasted. It has to be total, unconditional surrender," he said, but added: "As long as there are women and children inside, I don't think that we will go in."

UPDATE:
Well played. The strong stance against the Islamists is boosting Musharaf's image. Very well played.