allesennogwat
07-09-2007, 06:15 AM
ISLAMABAD - - Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf Monday appointed a former prime minister to lead last-ditch talks with militant-led Islamists barricaded with women and children in an Islamabad mosque.
Security forces again fired tear gas and exchanged gunfire with the rebels at the Red Mosque, a group said to include foreign fighters and insurgents with links to Al-Qaeda. Twenty-four people have died since Tuesday.
Shockwaves from the crisis have rippled across Pakistan, with gunmen killing three Chinese nationals in an apparent revenge attack for the standoff and 20,000 tribesmen vowing to wage holy war against Musharraf.
At a meeting with high-level officials, the president authorised Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Pakistan's premier for three months in 2004, to work with a delegation of top Islamic scholars to persuade the hold-outs to surrender.
"The meeting authorised Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to make a real last-ditch effort to convince the militants holding women and children to release them," a senior government official who attended the talks told AFP.
Musharraf said the priority was still to save the so-called human shields, the official said.
"They must be released by the hostage-takers," he quoted the president as saying.
He would not say what the government was offering in return to the mosque's current leader, firebrand cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi, and the militants.
Islamist sources said earlier that efforts were under way to use senior members from banned militant organisations to put pressure on Ghazi.
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.
There was no official confirmation of those efforts.
Officials said Sunday that Ghazi had lost control of the situation inside the mosque, and that it was now being run by Islamic militants with close ties to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
Fifteen suicide jackets were distributed to militants inside the complex on Sunday, a mosque source said.
Ghazi, 43, gave several telephone interviews in the first days of the siege but had been out of contact since late Sunday, a security official said.
Despite frequent clashes around the mosque in the heart of the capital, Musharraf has held off on launching a potentially bloody raid.
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 foreign militants and other extremists 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.
Clerics set to play a role in the make-or-break negotiations said they were still hopeful.
"We are trying hard to reach a compromise on ending the crisis in a peaceful manner," said Hanif Jalandri, the head of the Wafaq-ul-Madaris, the main religious body that oversees Islamic schools in Pakistan.
Ghazi has vowed to die with his followers rather than surrender. He said he hoped his "martyrdom" would spark an Islamic revolution in Pakistan, where Musharraf has fought a bloody battle with extremism since 2001.
Tensions between the government and the mosque began several months ago when its students launched a Taliban-style anti-vice campaign, kidnapping several people it accused of involvement in prostitution, including seven Chinese.
Musharraf faced pressure from close ally Beijing to do more to protect Chinese nationals in Pakistan after three Chinese workers were shot dead by suspected Islamic militants in the northern city of Peshawar on Sunday.
Security sources termed it an apparent revenge attack over the mosque siege.
Meanwhile pro-Taliban militant commanders told around 20,000 tribesmen in the Bajaur district bordering Afghanistan, some carrying rocket launchers, that they must exact revenge for the siege.
Security forces again fired tear gas and exchanged gunfire with the rebels at the Red Mosque, a group said to include foreign fighters and insurgents with links to Al-Qaeda. Twenty-four people have died since Tuesday.
Shockwaves from the crisis have rippled across Pakistan, with gunmen killing three Chinese nationals in an apparent revenge attack for the standoff and 20,000 tribesmen vowing to wage holy war against Musharraf.
At a meeting with high-level officials, the president authorised Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Pakistan's premier for three months in 2004, to work with a delegation of top Islamic scholars to persuade the hold-outs to surrender.
"The meeting authorised Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to make a real last-ditch effort to convince the militants holding women and children to release them," a senior government official who attended the talks told AFP.
Musharraf said the priority was still to save the so-called human shields, the official said.
"They must be released by the hostage-takers," he quoted the president as saying.
He would not say what the government was offering in return to the mosque's current leader, firebrand cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi, and the militants.
Islamist sources said earlier that efforts were under way to use senior members from banned militant organisations to put pressure on Ghazi.
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.
There was no official confirmation of those efforts.
Officials said Sunday that Ghazi had lost control of the situation inside the mosque, and that it was now being run by Islamic militants with close ties to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
Fifteen suicide jackets were distributed to militants inside the complex on Sunday, a mosque source said.
Ghazi, 43, gave several telephone interviews in the first days of the siege but had been out of contact since late Sunday, a security official said.
Despite frequent clashes around the mosque in the heart of the capital, Musharraf has held off on launching a potentially bloody raid.
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 foreign militants and other extremists 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.
Clerics set to play a role in the make-or-break negotiations said they were still hopeful.
"We are trying hard to reach a compromise on ending the crisis in a peaceful manner," said Hanif Jalandri, the head of the Wafaq-ul-Madaris, the main religious body that oversees Islamic schools in Pakistan.
Ghazi has vowed to die with his followers rather than surrender. He said he hoped his "martyrdom" would spark an Islamic revolution in Pakistan, where Musharraf has fought a bloody battle with extremism since 2001.
Tensions between the government and the mosque began several months ago when its students launched a Taliban-style anti-vice campaign, kidnapping several people it accused of involvement in prostitution, including seven Chinese.
Musharraf faced pressure from close ally Beijing to do more to protect Chinese nationals in Pakistan after three Chinese workers were shot dead by suspected Islamic militants in the northern city of Peshawar on Sunday.
Security sources termed it an apparent revenge attack over the mosque siege.
Meanwhile pro-Taliban militant commanders told around 20,000 tribesmen in the Bajaur district bordering Afghanistan, some carrying rocket launchers, that they must exact revenge for the siege.