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Fresh clashes erupt at Lal mosque, sporadic gunfire continues |
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Updated at:
1710
PST, Monday, July 09, 2007 |
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ISLAMABAD: Sporadic gunfire continued at the Lal mosque on the seventh consecutive day of the standoff Monday as the fresh clashes erupted between government forces and the rebels, said to include foreign fighters and insurgents with links to
Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
President Pervez Musharraf met top officials Monday to consider an assault on Islamic militants holed up inside a mosque, as clerics made a last-ditch bid to end the week-long siege peacefully.
Shockwaves from the crisis have rippled across Pakistan, with gunmen shooting dead three Chinese nationals in an apparent revenge attack for the standoff and 20,000 tribesmen vowing to wage holy war against Musharraf.
"We are trying hard to reach a compromise on ending the crisis in a peaceful manner," Hanif Jalandri, the head of the Wafaq-ul-Madaris, the main religious body that oversees Islamic schools in Pakistan said.
"There are certain proposals and we hope we will succeed." "At around midnight senior government officials were in contact for last-ditch efforts to convince (mosque deputy leader) Abdul Rashid Ghazi to give up," chairman Maulana Tahir Ashrafi said.
Islamist sources said efforts were also under way to recruit senior members from banned militant organisations to put pressure on Ghazi. Officials would not confirm the attempt.
They said they were also trying to arrange a telephone talk between Ghazi and his brother Abdul Aziz, the leader of the mosque, who fled the fortified complex dressed in a woman's burqa on Wednesday.
Despite frequent clashes around the mosque in the heart of the capital, Musharraf has held off from a potentially bloody raid to prevent children and women inside from being killed.
Authorities have cut electricity, gas and water supplies to the compound, where around 300 people are believed to remain.
But the government's patience began to run short on Sunday when a commando from Musharraf's elite Special Forces group was killed and evidence emerged that some foreign fighters and other hardcore militants were inside.
Religious Affairs Minister Ijaz-ul Haq has said a wanted "terrorist" linked to a 2004 attack on Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was killed early in the standoff. |
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ISSN 1563-9479 
