Leaders negotiate in mosque siege

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan-Negotiations to end a deadly standoff between radical Islamic students and Pakistani forces at a controversial mosque are expected to begin Monday, intelligence sources told CNN.President Pervez Musharraf formed a delegation of government officials, scholars and negotiators that has arrived at the Red Mosque in Islamabad and is expected to begin negotiations soon, the sources said.Addressing those still holed up inside the mosque through loudspeakers, the Pakistani delegation reiterated the government's call for all inside to surrender.Musharraf formed the delegation after a high-level meeting on Monday in which he stressed that the government should take precautions to secure the lives of the children and women inside the mosque.Over the weekend, Musharraf seemed to rule out the possibility of negotiations."Those who have remained (in the mosque), I request them to come out and surrender," Musharraf said Saturday. "If they don't surrender they'll be killed. ... They must surrender."Tensions escalated Sunday when Pakistani army commander Lt. Col. Haroon-ul-Islam was shot and killed during an effort to free women and children inside the mosque by blasting holes in the perimeter walls. Three other officers were wounded.Pakistani forces on Saturday targeted a fuel tank used for running generators, causing an explosion that was heard across the capital, intelligence sources said.At least 27 deaths have resulted thus far. Two of those deaths include students who tried to surrender Friday but were shot dead by other students, intelligence sources said. The sources gave no additional details of how the shootings occurred.The cleric leading the stand-off inside-Abdul Rashid Ghazi-claimed more than 300 people have been killed since Tuesday, but an interior ministry spokesman said the ministry completely rejects that claim.
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