PAKISTAN:Attempts to negotiate an end to a bloody stand-off at a Pakistani mosque failed to make progress yesterday, a day after authorities gave Islamist militants inside a "final warning" to surrender.
Security forces fired tear gas and traded intermittent fire with gunmen inside the compound housing the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, and a girl's religious school in the heart of Islamabad.
Religious scholars and former prime minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain pleaded with the militants to send out dead and wounded, along with women and children whom the government says are being held hostage.
"I can't say that there's been any breakthrough," information minister Mohammad Ali Durrani said. "There's no flexibility."
Troops have surrounded the compound since last Tuesday when clashes between armed student radicals and government forces erupted after months of tension. At least 21 people have died.
The government has demanded that rebel cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi and his fighters surrender or die. Ghazi has refused, saying he would prefer martyrdom as his Taliban-style movement hoped their deaths would spark an Islamic revolution.
Security forces say they have held back from mounting a full-scale assault because of fears for the women and children inside. Troops have instead blasted holes in the walls to provide escape routes for them to get out.
Mr Durrani said it was too dangerous for the clerics to go into the compound. Instead the talks, which would continue, were by telephone and over loudspeakers. Six parents who went in to bring out their children had been taken hostage, he said.
The government says the Lal Masjid's defenders include wanted militants. Ghazi says he has nearly 2,000 followers with him but no militants and that no one is being held hostage.
The Lal Masjid has been a centre of militancy for years, known for its support for the Taliban and opposition to Gen Musharraf's backing for the United States.
About 1,200 students left the mosque soon after the clashes began but the number leaving has since slowed to a trickle. Officials say the militants have distributed suicide-bomb vests and even shot students trying to flee.
Feeding fears of a militant backlash, three Chinese workers were shot dead in Peshawar on Sunday. At least 20 people, mostly soldiers and police, have been killed in four blasts and an ambush since Wednesday.
A wanted Pakistani militant linked to al-Qaeda vowed revenge if the mosque was assaulted.
"We will declare jihad," Faqir Mohammad, flanked by masked gunmen, told nearly 10,000 tribesmen in the Bajaur region on the Afghan border.- (Reuters)