The death toll in the clashes between radical students in the Lal Masjid and Pakistani security forces has risen to 24, Minister for Information Tariq Azeem confirmed on Sunday.
The standoff at the Lal Masjid entered its sixth day on Sunday. It is difficult to verify the casualties inside the mosque, Azeem said, adding that the government’s policy remains unchanged and use of force is still the last option.
Abdul Rashid Ghazi, deputy chief of the Lal Masjid, claimed that 335 religious students died in the overnight operation on Saturday, according to local TV channels.
There are still more than 1,000 men and women students inside the mosque in the heart of the city, Umm-e-Hassan, the principal of Jamia Hafsa and wife of Lal Masjid chief Maulana Abdul Aziz, was quoted as saying by The Nation newspaper on Sunday.
A top paramilitary officer was killed and another injured in the latest clashes between Pakistani security forces and Islamic militants barricaded inside Lal Masjid, where a defiant cleric on Sunday claimed that 310 female students were among those who died in a wall collapse due to massive blasts triggered by the Army.
Lt Col Haroon-ul-Islam, a commander of the Special Services Group (SSG) of paramilitary Rangers, was killed and Major Tariq injured in the heavy exchange of fire between the security forces and the militants last night, the Army said.
According to Major General Waheed Arshad, the SSG commander was shot by militant students when he had been overseeing an operation to blast holes in the walls of Lal Masjid in an attempt to allow women and children trapped inside to escape. “He was immediately rushed to the hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.”
Meanwhile, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the hard-line Pakistani cleric holed up in the besieged Masjid, has agreed to face the charges against him in court provided the government delayed military action for three weeks, media reports said.
Ghazi has been in the heavily fortified mosque since Tuesday, when thousands of military troops started an operation to flush out his followers from the mosque after they attacked a police checkpoint.
“The security operation should be delayed for three weeks, and if there are any charges against me they should be decided in the court during this period,” he was cited by the Geo news channel on Saturday as telling the president of ruling Pakistan Muslim League party Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain over the phone.