The Australian : Media barred from mosque victims

Media barred from mosque victims

by Bruce Loudon and Zahid Hussain | July 12, 2007

AUTHORITIES in Pakistan yesterday barred journalists from hospitals where the dead and wounded were taken following the storming of the Red Mosque in the heart of Islamabad, sparking fears for the safety of scores of women and children used as human shields in the siege.

An operation by Pakistani troops to flush out Taliban and al-Qa'ida-aligned militants holed up in the mosque was completed last night, more than 24 hours after it began.

"The first phase of flushing out and clearing the area of militants is over," the chief military spokesman, Major General Waheed Arshad, said last night.

"The second phase is in progress to comb and sanitise the area of unexploded grenades and booby-traps. Bodies have to be gathered and taken out."

Suspicions grew that despite assurances a bloodbath had been averted, women and children were killed when Pakistani commandos stormed the compound and were met by heavy barrages of machinegun and rocket fire from Islamic militants.

At a briefing yesterday, President Pervez Musharraf was told "a large number of women and children" were rescued during "Operation Silence", but no specific figures were given to him.

Major General Arshad insisted yesterday that no women and children had been among the casualties.

An estimated 65 women and children were rescued by security forces who launched the final assault on the mosque. Others were still missing as the military cleared the compound by nightfall, engaging in gun battles with militants, room by room.

About 70 militants and 12 soldiers died in the fighting. Among the dead was Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the firebrand cleric who led the rebels during the standoff with Pakistan's security forces, and who declared he would rather die than surrender.

He assumed command after Maulana Abdul Aziz, his elder brother and chief prayer leader, was caught trying to escape wearing a woman's burka last week.

But the number of dead could be far higher. A prominent social worker said he had been asked to prepare shrouds for 800 more bodies, in addition to the 300 already sent to the compound.

The social worker, Abdul Sattar Edhi, whose volunteers have been recovering bodies from the compound, told the Dawn newspaper the battle in Islamabad was the worst of its kind in Pakistan.

The raid marked one of the largest crackdowns on Islamic militants since General Musharraf took power in a coup in 1999.

Hundreds of special forces stormed the mosque at dawn but did not dislodge the well-entrenched militants until well into the night. About two dozen women and girls dressed in burkas fled from the mosque as the the final assault began.

Pakistani officials said they did everything they could to avoid a bloodbath that would have brought worldwide condemnation of General Musharraf's embattled administration.

Some reports indicate more than 1700 militants may have been captured in the operation.

The siege of one of the capital's most prominent mosques was prompted by clashes between security forces and supporters of the hardline clerics who tried to impose their version of Islamic morality in Islamabad.

While there is widespread support in Islamabad for the military operation to end the rebellion, with even exiled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto telling reporters it was inevitable, there is also outrage among the country's powerful religious parties and a growing fear the country could see retaliatory attacks.

Religious parties joined Muslim scholars in accusing General Musharraf of attacking despite negotiators having worked out a deal with Ghazi for a peaceful settlement of the standoff.

Reports said General Musharraf told his chief negotiator, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussein, of the Pakistan Muslim League, that he was under "heavy duress" from "the allies" to end the siege. The Times of India said "the allies" were the US.

Additional reporting: The Times