Cleric Calls for End to Pakistan Siege

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 9:07 a.m. ET

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- A radical cleric arrested while fleeing his government-besieged mosque in a woman's burqa and high heels said Thursday that the nearly 1,000 followers still inside should flee or surrender.

The comments by Maulana Abdul Aziz raised hopes that the standoff could end without further bloodshed, but his brother remained inside the mosque with followers and said there was no reason to surrender.

Gunfire erupted repeatedly around the Red Mosque, or Lal Masjid Aziz, but no large-scale fighting was reported. Four helicopters hovered over the area, from which journalists were barred.

At least 16 people, including eight militants, have been killed and scores injured in the standoff between Pakistan's U.S.-backed government and Aziz, who has challenged President Gen. Pervez Musharraf with a drive to impose Taliban-style Islamic law in the city.

The bloodshed in the heart of the capital has added to a sense of crisis in Pakistan, where Musharraf faces emboldened militants near the Afghan border and a pro-democracy movement triggered by his botched attempt to fire the country's chief justice.

Aziz's brother, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, remains inside the mosque and an Interior Ministry official estimated that the cleric had about 30 diehard supporters with him. Intelligence officials said there could be as many as 100.

The official, Javed Iqbal Cheema, said Ghazi was using women and children as ''human shields,'' something which Ghazi denied in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

''Why should we surrender? We are not criminals. How can we force those out who don't want to leave?'' Ghazi, the mosque's deputy leader, said by telephone.

Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim said some of the more than 1,100 supporters who had fled the mosque and an adjoining girls' madrassa told them that Ghazi had retreated to a cellar along with 20 female ''hostages'' and that the holdouts had ''large quantities of automatic weapons.''

Azim said there would be no more negotiations with Ghazi.

''Enough time has already been wasted. It has to be total, unconditional surrender,'' he said.

Still, he said security forces were holding back from storming the complex to avoid civilian casualties.

''As long as there are women and children inside, I don't think that we will go in,'' he said.

Aziz was nabbed Wednesday evening after a female police officer checking women fleeing the mosque tried to search his body, which was concealed by a full-length black burqa. Azim, the deputy information minister, said the cleric had also been wearing high-heeled shoes.

In an interview with state-run Pakistan Television after his arrest, the gray-bearded Aziz, still dressed in a burqa, appeared calm as he said his mosque has ''a relationship of love and affection with all jihadist organizations'' but no actual links with them.

''We have no militants, we only had students. If somebody came from outside, I have no information on that,'' said Aziz, despite past vows to launch suicide attacks if authorities attack the mosque.

Security forces were sent to the mosque after the kidnapping of six Chinese women alleged to be prostitutes, a brief abduction that drew a protest from Beijing and proved to be the last straw in a string of provocations by the mosque stretching back six months.

Militant students streamed out of the mosque to confront the government forces, leading to a daylong battle on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the Pakistani army surrounded the mosque, determined to end the actions by the clerics and students.

Aziz said that as many as 700 women and about 250 men remained inside the mosque compound and an adjacent women's seminary, some armed with more than a dozen AK-47 assault rifles provided by ''friends.''

''If they can get out quietly they should go, or they can surrender if they want to,'' Aziz said. ''I saw after coming out that the siege is very intense ... Our companions will not be able to stay for long.''

Officials said over 1,100 militants had given up and more emerged early Thursday as police using loudspeakers urged the hold-outs to surrender.

The city's top administrator, Khalid Pervez, said the periodic bursts of gunfire, a series of pre-dawn explosions and deployment of helicopters were deliberate ploys to escalate tension, rattle nerves and induce surrender.

''Explosives are part of our operational strategy. It is aimed at ensuring minimum loss and achieving our objective,'' he said.

Aziz and Ghazi are named in more than 20 police cases, including involvement in terrorism and fleeing justice, said police official Akhtar Nawaz. But the two, who are brothers, have not yet been charged.

''They have no options but to surrender,'' Cheema said. ''The government is not into dialogue with these clerics.''

All women and children will be granted amnesty, but males involved in killings and other crimes as well as top mosque leaders will face legal action, said Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim.

One mosque follower who decided to give up, 15-year-old Maryam Qayyeum, said Wednesday that those who stayed in the seminary ''only want martyrdom.''

''They are happy,'' she said. ''They don't want to go home.''

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Associated Press reporters Sadaqat Jan, Zarar Khan and Stephen Graham in Islamabad contributed to this report.