.bmp)
.bmp)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan-Security forces clashed with Islamic students outside a radical mosque in the Pakistani capital Tuesday, triggering gunfire that killed nine people, including four of the militant students, a senior official said.The students later pelted two government buildings, including the Ministry of Environment,with rocks and set them ablaze, and torched a dozen cars in the ministry's lot.The battle marked a major escalation in a six-month standoff at the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, whose clerics have challenged the military-led government by mounting a vigilante anti-vice campaign in Islamabad.Students have carried out a string of kidnappings of police officers and alleged prostitutes,killing at least five people, officials said.Doctors at two hospitals said the five dead included two policemen, one soldier, a militant and a civilian. However, clerics at the mosque claimed that 10 of their supporters died, according to a lawmaker sent to mediate.The trouble began when student followers of the mosque, including young men with guns and dozens of women wearing black burqas, rushed toward a nearby police checkpoint. Police and paramilitary soldiers fired tear gas and, as the students retreated, an Associated Press photographer saw at least four students, some of them masked, fire shots toward security forces.Gunfire was also heard from the police position.
To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah....
