Pakistanis launch attack after mosque talks fail

ISLAMABAD-Pakistani forces stormed a mosque compound in the capital on Tuesday and big blasts and sporadic gunfire rang out over the city after talks to end a week-long standoff with militants broke down.Twenty children escaped from among hundreds of women and children believed to be inside the mosque-school complex, but the militants-some holed up in basements-were putting up fierce resistance, the military said."An intense engagement is going on in the madrasa complex between militants and the security forces," said military spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad.Thick smoke shrouded the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, compound which troops had been surrounding since clashes erupted between armed student radicals and government forces on July 3.Parts of the complex had been cleared, he said. Five soldiers had been wounded but he had no information about militant casualties.Reporters have been kept back from the compound and many residents of the neighborhood-which has under curfew for the past week-have moved out.The military launched the operation at 4 a.m. (2300 GMT on Monday). Arshad said the operation could take three to four hours.Security forces earlier said they had held back from mounting a full-scale assault because of fears for the women and children inside.The government says many of the 200 to 500 students inside had been forced to stay.Commandos attacked the compound from three sides, a security official said.At least 21 people were killed in the week-long standoff, which followed months of mounting tension between the mosque's hardline clerics and the government.Earlier on Tuesday, government negotiators announced talks to end the standoff had failed.Sustained gunfire and big explosions erupted from the vicinity of the mosque moments later."We tried to make him see sense but it seems he is trying to buy time," Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim Khan told reporters, referring to the radical cleric holed up in the mosque with militant fighters and hundreds of followers.The Lal Masjid has been a centre of militancy for years, known for its support for Afghanistan's Taliban and opposition to Musharraf's backing for the United States.The government has been demanding that rebel cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi and his 50 or 60 hardcore of fighters, who authorities say include wanted militants, surrender unconditionally or die.Ghazi has refused, saying he would prefer martyrdom. He said he and the followers of his Taliban-style movement hoped their deaths would spark an Islamic revolution."They are not sincere...they want bloodshed," Ghazi told Geo TV after the announcement the talks had broken down, speaking by telephone from the compound."We're not bowing to them, it's naked aggression."Ghazi had said he had nearly 2,000 followers with him but no militants. No one was being forced to stay, he said.Earlier on Tuesday, Pakistani television channels reported that a deal was being worked out.A delegation of religious scholars and ruling party politicians began talks on Monday.Chief negotiator, former prime minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain went to see President Pervez Musharraf late on Monday.Hussain returned to the mosque compound early on Tuesday for more talks.About 1,200 students left the mosque early on in the siege but the numbers leaving later slowed to a trickle.The action against the mosque has raised fears of a militant backlash. A wanted Pakistani militant linked to al Qaeda and based in the volatile northwest vowed revenge on Monday if the mosque were assaulted.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070710/ts_nm/pakistan_mosque_dc
PS:A sad end to a long siege.BUT once again what this "nut" Ghazi wanted is just bloodshed...!!!
As in the days of Noah...