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Hundreds at Pakistani Mosque Surrender

Troops seal off area around radical outpost

By Greg Atwan,  Newser User

Posted Jul 4, 2007 3:07 PM CDT
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(Newser) – About 700 students have agreed to leave Islamabad's Red Mosque under pressure from Pakistani police surrounding the compound, the BBC reports. Several thousand people, including students as young as 10, remain inside the radical mosque after a clash between security forces and dissidents yesterday killed 10 and wounded 140.

Tensions between the Red Mosque, or Lal Masjid, and the government have simmered for months. The police demand that all militants surrender their weapons immediately, but they have offered full clemency to women and children who leave. Lal Masjid's lead cleric, meanwhile, tried to escape tonight disguised in a burqa among fleeing women, but police took him into custody.

Pakistani religious female students carry an injured girl to ambulance after a clash with police outside the Red Mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, July 3, 2007. Shooting broke out at the radical mosque after students clashed with police deployed there. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
Pakistani religious female students carry an injured girl to ambulance after a clash with police outside the Red Mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, July 3, 2007. Shooting broke out at the radical...   (Associated Press)
Pakistani religious students escape from a tear gas fired by authorities outside the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, July 3, 2007. Shooting broke out the radical mosque in Pakistan's capital after students clashed with police deployed there. The battle marked a major escalation in a standoff...
Pakistani religious students escape from a tear gas fired by authorities outside the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, July 3, 2007. Shooting broke out the radical mosque in...   (Associated Press)
An armed Pakistani Islamic student takes position as police fire teargas shells to disperse the crowd during clashes outside the Red Mosque, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, July 3, 2007. Security forces clashed with Islamic students outside a radical mosque in the Pakistani capital Tuesday, triggering gunfire that killed five people,...
An armed Pakistani Islamic student takes position as police fire teargas shells to disperse the crowd during clashes outside the Red Mosque, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, July 3, 2007. Security forces...   (Associated Press)
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Mosque's leader arrested attempting to flee in burqa
Al Jazeera

Mosque linked to al-Qaeda
News24 (South Africa)

Blog from Islamabad with ongoing coverage
Metroblogging Islamabad

 
Pakistan • Pervez Musharraf • Red Mosque • Lal Masjid • Islamabad

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