Posted on 07/08/2007 6:24:30 PM PDT by blam
Commander killed in Pakistan mosque siege
By Isambard Wilkinson
Last Updated: 7:33pm BST 08/07/2007
A Pakistani commander was killed today after troops came under heavy fire from students and suspected militants holed up in a besieged mosque in the capital, Islamabad.
A lieutenant-colonel was killed as his troops attempted to blow holes in the walls of the mosque compound in the hope that hundreds of women and children could escape.
Troops have surrounded the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in Islamabad since Tuesday when clashes between armed students and security forces began after months of tension.
The known death toll in the standoff was at least 21. Pakistan’s government appeared to move closer to a full-scale assault on the Islamic militants barricaded in the mosque.
"The government may have to rethink its strategy in the light of the sad martyrdom of a senior army official and the resistance that has been shown by what appears to be highly trained militants," said the deputy information minister, Tariq Azeem.
Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the cleric leader of the students, has said that he and his followers are ready to die rather than surrender. A day earlier, President Pervez Musharraf warned the militants they would be killed unless they surrendered.
Security forces have not mounted a full-scale assault on the compound because of fears for the safety of hundreds of women and children the government says are being held as human shields.
Pakistani forces have held back from raiding the now bullet-pocked mosque but moved in closer earlier today, when the giant blasts to knock down the wall echoed around the city.
Officials said they did not know how many people remained inside but there could be up to 2,000. Fifty to 60 hard-core militants were believed to be leading the fighting, officials said.
"We’ve shown great patience because we don’t want people to be killed," said General Musharraf, who is also army chief. Instead, troops have been blasting holes in the wall to provide escape routes for those inside.
About 1,200 students left the mosque after the clashes began but only about 20 have come out since Friday. While some women and children may been coerced into staying, there are women who have been among the most fervent supporters of Ghazi and his elder brother Abdul Aziz, who was caught on Wednesday trying to escape.
The Lal Masjid has been a hotbed of militancy for years, known for its support for the Taliban in Afghanistan and opposition to Musharraf’s backing for the US-led campaign against terrorism.
Many Pakistanis support the action against the hardliners whose behaviour, including a vigilante campaign against perceived vice, raised concern about the spread of militant Islam.
Ping.
I think the plan is they be myrtyred and hope from that a widespread revolt against Musharref and set up a Sharia state...a sharia state with A BOMBS..is one scary as heck thought.
I got real bad vibes.
Janet Reno would know how to end this.
If Pakistan goes down we are screwed on so many levels. The Al Qaeda branch of the ISI with nukes....will not sit well with India. Imagine the havoc a AQ dominated Pakistan with NUKES could unleash on central asia.
just keep the peanut farmer away
These articles will not tell us the religious facts because of political correctness. Let me enlighten you From Nasr’s book “The Shia Revival”
The Wahhabi Sunnis are in the Red Mosque. The Wahhabi Sunnis killed our people on 911. The Wahhabi Sunnis are the insurgents in Iraq. The Wahhabi Sunnis number 100 million. There are 1.4 billion Muslems . (only 10-14% are Shia) Sunnis have the bomb in Pakistan. Sunnis and Shia consider the other as “infidel” along with jews and you. Shia Iran has had 9 presidential election since 1979 and 7 parliamentary elections.
We are so woefully ignorants of who the enemy is in this country, you can’t make it up.
-ccm
I would say that the term “students” is used euphemistically.
Hmmm, the russians had a similar problem in a moscow theater some years ago. They solved it with a knockout gas but several hostages still died because of over doses. Still though, a technical, non-lethal solution may be the answer here.
Several influential members within the ISI have very strong loyalties to the man - Not to mention broad support within the Pak Mil HQs -
Of course, the state of Pak is in about a turbulent of time as we've seen in the past 5 years.....And without question there must certainly be some hardliner jihadist types within both the ISI and Pak Mil who would love to seize control via a coup (and likely think the time may be now or never)....
How strong are those ISI loyalties to Mush?? That is the big question...and is Mush willing to gamble with his life that they are strong enough....
When they say “students”, I think they are using the generally accepted term for the “partially educated”.
I think the difference here is that no survivors would be a very good outcome.
That is the problem in human shield confrontations. Barbarians don’t care who they kill whereas as civilized people we don’t want the innocent to die along with the death cult types. This is why some in law enforcement are hard at work on non-lethal methods to disable crazed militants like these at this Red Mosque. From your arm chair half way around the world it’s easy to say KILL THEM ALL, but a young boy captured there may have a wonderful, productive life ahead of him. He’s worth saving.
For me then, I would try to just bring the situation under CONTROL with non-lethal technical means than to just slaughter everyone there. Sheriff’s deputies quite often face this kind of hostage situation and tear gas is often the correct approach.
In a wider context though, this typifies the whole WOT. They have fanatics and crude weapons on their side, a mentality straight out of medieval barbarism; whereas we have the most technically advanced weaponry on the planet. We’ve learned the hard way that there is no reasoning with these fanatics anymore than you “reason” with a cockroach.
Thus the only way we are going to defeat this enemy is by playing to our strength : technology. Just as medicine has made great strides in defeating diseases of various kinds with TECHNOLOGY, so will we eliminate this terrorist disease from the planet with TECHNOLOGY. Makes sense doesn’t it?
A hitlerjungen could at least be able to read another book than Mein Kampf. These so-called "students" in the madrassas are only taught Koran style hate. No math, history, science, art. You are presuming that they are not mad dogs. Tell you what. Take one of these animals home to your family. Let us know how many of your family survive.
I would hesitate prior to killing everyone in the Mosque - about as long as I contemplate putting rat bait about my property...
Not at all....
You assume that everyone in that mosque is a crazed terrorist or somesuch. Why then did the local security people blow a hole in the wall if not to let some hostages free? Yes, most of them should die as terrorists but I still contend that some are true and innocent hostages. Think of that situation in southern russia where drag-crazed savages invaded a school and several innocent children were killed. Thus the pakistanis are showing that they care about THEM, the innocents held hostage.
You assume that everyone in that mosque is a crazed terrorist or some such.
If they are in a mosque they must be there to worship. If they are in a mosque they must be Muslim and, I think most people in America know what Muslims want to do to the Jew and the infidels.
Blow the thing up and, leave nothing but ashes!!!!
Musharref must be taking his fighting points from the Democrat party in America.
“This mosque should be bombed so throughly that not one stone remains standing upon another. Then bomb it again.”
ccm,
I think the idea is to free the hostages first. If there weren’t a lot of children inside, the Paki Army would have blown this cesspool up days ago.
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