Pakistan troops storm Islamabad mosque: military

afp ^ | 09/07/2007 | afp

[mdittmar]

Pakistani troops early Tuesday launched a massive operation against a cleric and his armed men in a besieged Islamabad mosque after negotiations failed, a top military official told AFP.

"The troops are now inside the mosque, they are at the roof top," top military spokesman Major General Arshad Waheed told AFP.

"It is a final push to clear the place of armed militants," he said, adding that the militants were putting up stiff resistance.

The talks between the Pakistani government and a cleric holed up with armed men at the mosque failed early Tuesday after he refused to release women and children allegedly held hostage, an official said.

Top government negotiator Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain announced the failure after 11 hours of talks, which was followed immediately by heavy firing and two massive blasts.

"After 11 hours of negotiations we are deeply disappointed that the talks did not succeed," he told a news conference near the Red Mosque.

[gandalftb]

Lots of ambulances parked outside, drivers out of vehicle, lounging around. Truck loads of troops leaving, one truck load now entering. Concertina wire everywhere, rows deep, dirt piled 5-6 foot deep around all entrances, vehicle single file openings only.

Lots of dirt piled around the whole compound on the streets around the complex.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From New Delhi TV (New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV), founded in 1988, is India's first and largest private producer of news, current affairs and entertainment television.):

*******************************EXCERPT**************************

Rogue Pakistan cleric killed

Associated Press

Tuesday, July 10, 2007 (Islamabad)

Pakistani troops killed Abdul Rashid Ghazi, a top cleric at the Red Mosque, during fierce room-by-room fighting on Tuesday to flush out holdouts entrenched inside a women's religious school in the capital, officials said.



Ghazi, who was the public face of the pro-Taliban mosque that challenged the government's writ in Islamabad, was killed in the school's basement following an intense gun battle with security forces, Javed Iqbal Cheema, spokesman for the Interior Ministry said.

An army official said Ghazi had received bullet wounds and when he was told to surrender, he gave no reply.

Commandos then fired another volley of bullets and found Ghazi dead, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Cheema said that Ghazi's body was still lying in the compound, and that ''battle hardened'' militants were defending themselves and still putting up stiff resistance from ''place to place.''

Officials, who earlier said that an all-out assault on Ghazi was prevented because a number of children were being held in the basement as hostages, provided no details on who was with him when he died.

The army said that about 50 militants and eight soldiers have been killed in the fighting on Tuesday. Pakistani commandos stormed the sprawling mosque compound before dawn.

Twelve hours later the army said the complex was 80 percent cleared of militants but it was still trying to root out well-armed defenders said to be holding a number of hostages.

Officials balked at giving estimates of how many people were trapped inside, but a local relief agency said the army asked for 400 white funeral shrouds.

The extremists had been using the mosque as a base to send out radicalised students to enforce their version of Islamic morality, including abducting alleged prostitutes and trying to ''re-educate'' them at the mosque.

Khalid Pervez, the city's top administrator, said as many as 50 women were the first to be freed by the militants and had emerged from the complex following the escape of 26 children.

[Issaquahking]

Thank you for an amazing thread.

[gandalftb]

Now 2 ambulances started up and entering compound, slowly.

Looks like this op has entered the recovery and evidence phase. No small arms fire for many hours, everyone very calm.

[sageb1]

Comments at an Islamabad blog (scroll down):

http://islamabad.metblogs.com/archives/2007/07/operation_silence_final_showdo.phtml

[gandalftb]

Report that a list of "heavyweight" militants with photos is circulating through the assault/search troops. No mention that they are foreign.

Briefing starting

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Just trying to capture what is coming from the Media - before the serious spinning starts....:Voice of America...

Pakistani Government: Cleric at Radical Mosque Killed

*******************************

By VOA News
10 July 2007

Pakistani Islamic cleric and deputy administrator of the Islamic madrassa school Jamia Hasfa Abdul Rashid Ghazi seen in this file photo taken on 10 Feb. 2007 in Islamabad, Pakistan

Pakistan's interior ministry says the cleric leading resistance at a radical mosque stormed by Pakistani troops has been killed.

Details surrounding Abdul Rashid Ghazi's death have not been confirmed.  The Muslim cleric is thought to have been barricaded in the Red Mosque's basement, where the military said he was using women and children as human shields.

Pakistani security forces stormed the Red Mosque's compound in an operation that officials say has left at least 50 Islamic militants and eight soldiers dead.

A military spokesman, Major General Waheed Arshad, said troops now control most of the complex. 

Authorities said the military has rescued at least 70 people.

Ghazi's followers want to install strict Taleban-style Islamic law in the country. Negotiations for their surrender had broken down before the military launched its assault.

Ghazi had said everyone with him in the mosque would rather die fighting than surrender to government forces.  He had said he hoped his death would provoke an Islamic revolution in Pakistan. 

The government says some militants in the mosque are linked to the al-Qaida terrorist network.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

[sarasota]

Please relay the content of the briefing and thanks in advance.

[gandalftb]

Briefing: there will be many more than 50 militants killed, "sanitizing" still underway, slowly, still recovering women and children alive, militants very heavily armed and fighting on in small groups, very angry questions from reporters, shouting, yes, there are foreign militants inside but too early to discuss them....question: won't casualty figures be in the hundreds? answer: I refuse to answer.....

question: wasn't there pressure from outside the country to make this attack? answer: our sympathies are for our country only and we did this to fight terrorism here...please don't rush to the hospitals to do interviews

question: high value targets? ans: too early to say, still sanitizing. Many questions about foreigners, no comment given except that operations are ongoing

[gandalftb]

Briefing: How many hard militants? ans: they are all hard militants if they are shooting at us, there are no soft core militants

[gandalftb]

Briefing: we don’t want our madrassas turned into fortresses. We are in the process of reforming madrassas. Only 86 have been rescued total. question: why aren’t federal ministers here? Are you speaking for the government or for the army? I am the spokesman for the dept of interior and I represent the government, the general represents the army. Many shouted questions, unaswered, briefing ends.

[gandalftb]

Now, 80 coffins and 300 white sheets asked from Edhi foundation.

[sarasota]

Am I correct in assuming that the 300 would be in addition to the original 400?

[gandalftb]

I’m assuming 300 instead of 400 as I don’t think there were that many possible hostage militants. The coffins instead of sheets are reported to be needed for bodies no longer intact.

[gandalftb]

that is hostage and/or militants

[Grampa Dave]

Another one bites the dust.

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/queen.php

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

OT President Bush is to talk at a Townhall meeting in Cleveland at 10:45 PST , ...topic is IRAQ.... CNN seemed to be saying they would show it....

[Dog]

Great posts...thanks.

[Marine_Uncle]

I should have added a sarc. Yes he did the right thing. Kill the frigen *astards.

[Marine_Uncle]

"Free Willy."
Well the hell with them! They deserved death. Imagine... burning videos of Free Willy. Frigen dopes don't have any class whatsover. Heheh.