July 07, 2007

Musharraf to Mosque Militants: "Surrender or Die"

Apparently in a peevish mood after surviving another assassination attempt yesterday, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told the militants holding the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) their time is up (via Reuters):

"If they don't surrender, I'm saying it here, they will be killed," Musharraf said, in his first public comments on the deadly stand-off in Islamabad.

Hundreds of troops have surrounded the fortified compound housing Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, and a girls' madrasa, where clashes between armed students and security forces began on Tuesday following months of tension.

The death toll rose to 20 after a paramilitary soldier was shot dead on Saturday morning, though the cleric leading Lal Masjid's Taliban-style movement said casualties were far higher. There were unconfirmed accounts of the mosque's defenders burying more bodies on Saturday.

Explosions have blown holes in the outer walls of the compound, and fierce gunbattles have raged, but there has been no assault. Officials reckon 50 to 60 hardcore militants are leading the fighting.

"We've shown great patience because we don't want people to be killed," Musharraf told reporters while visiting flood-hit Baluchistan province. "We could have done everything. The government has the power but there are women and children."

Mosque cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi has said he would rather choose "martyrdom," and has rejected government accusations that he is holding women and children as human shields.

Ghazi said he and his followers would lay down their weapons but would never accept arrest. "I fully stand by my position, there's no question of arrests," Ghazi told Reuters, speaking over the crack of rifle fire.

My prediction: Ghazi and his brave band of "freedom fighters" will follow the example of their captured leader Abdul Aziz and try to escape wearing burquas, leaving the women and children to face martyrdom.

Update: Brainwashed children plead to die as martyrs in Red Mosque siege

By at 12:35 PM | |