PAKISTAN:Nine people died and at least 150 were wounded yesterday in a five-hour gun battle between Pakistani security forces and radicalised students at a pro-Taliban mosque in central Islamabad.
The clash outside Lal Masjid, or the Red Mosque, was the culmination of months of tension between authorities and the students, whose anti-vice campaign in the capital - including kidnapping prostitutes and burning films - has embarrassed the president, Gen Pervez Musharraf.
Masked students hid behind sandbags on the mosque roof, firing at police and army rangers occupying the surrounding streets. Security forces returned a barrage of bullets and tear gas shells. A droning voice over the mosque loudspeaker spoke throughout the fighting, urging students to prepare for suicide bombings.
A fragile ceasefire took hold by nightfall as the government considered its options. "They can't be allowed to sort of have a state within a state and assume powers. Of course this can't be allowed," said the city's top security official, Khalid Pervez.
The deputy interior minister confirmed nine dead - four students, three civilians, a soldier and a journalist. Mosque authorities claimed 10 civilians had been killed.
The violence shocked the normally placid city as volleys of bullets whipped through trees in a wealthy district near the parliament and supreme court. Lines of soldiers scurried through alleyways and at least three journalists were caught in the crossfire including a cameraman who was seriously wounded.
A thick plume of inky smoke rose in the sky after students torched two nearby government buildings, including the ministry of the environment, and set cars ablaze. They also ransacked a girls' school.
A black flag depicting two crossed swords and a verse from the Koran - similar to the Taliban standard - fluttered from the mosque rooftop. Inside, burka-clad female students huddled in prayer, some apparently preparing for martyrdom.
Unusually, a young woman led prayers in the main mosque, standing before hundreds of men armed with staves. She called on "the angels" to help them get rid of President Musharraf. But other terrified young students fled for safety, some rescued by relatives. "We sent her to Lal Masjid for an education," said one woman as she prepared to dash inside the mosque to fetch her 20-year-old sister. "We do not like terrorism. We are for peace."
The radical preacher who runs Lal Masjid, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, changed his tone from conciliation to threats of extreme violence as the afternoon wore on.
Among passersby sheltering behind trees on the streets outside, opinions were divided. One young man said President Musharraf deserved to be ousted. "Musharraf, dog!" he said in broken English, making a woofing noise. But Shahid Hayat, a 20-year-old business student, supported the president. "This is not good, it is hurting our country's reputation," he said. "It's hurting Islam."
Maulana Shah Abdul Aziz, a black-turbanned parliamentarian for a hardline religious party, who had entered the mosque, declared a ceasefire after evening prayers. President Musharraf should "see these students as his own students", he said on the way out. "War is not a solution."
Last night, however, the gunfire continued despite the ceasefire and government officials were considering their options including violently storming the mosque. One described the mosque as a "cult" but feared the stand-off could develop into a "Waco-style" siege - a reference to the death of 78 people in Texas in 1993.
Reached by telephone, Abdul Rashid Ghazi refused to comment on the situation. "You can judge for yourself," he said.
Many of his students come from impoverished pockets of Frontier province, drawn by promises of a good education and free board. But his message has also resonated with some urban dwellers disillusioned with corruption and President Musharraf's alliance with America.
One jeans-wearing young man said he had rushed from Rawalpindi, 13 miles away, to join the fight. "In the name of enlightened moderation they tried to bring vulgarity and obscenity to this country," he declared.