Newsday : Raid at Pakistan mosque saves students

Raid at Pakistan mosque saves students

BY JAMES RUPERT | July 11, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Army commandos seized control of Islamabad's Red Mosque from Islamic militant guerrillas Tuesday, but it appeared that most of perhaps 300 students trapped in the siege were killed.

Explosions and gunfire jolted central Islamabad in a battle of more than 16 hours. As a pall of stinging smoke hung over the shattered compound last night, government spokesmen skirted questions about casualties among the students, who reportedly included children as young as 7 or 8.

But authorities appeared to be preparing Pakistanis for heavy losses among those whom the raid was meant to rescue. Deputy information minister Tariq Azim somberly told reporters that "all of those who were killed were Muslims," and "most were innocent."

A prominent social welfare activist, Abdul Sattar Edhi, said officials had asked his organization to prepare 300 white burial shrouds.

Many of the students at the mosque's religious schools stayed in the mosque after troops surrounded it last week. The heavily armed guerrillas eventually compelled them to remain as human shields.

A high death toll among them will further burden President Pervez Musharraf in his effort to win re-election in the next three months. Musharraf already is in trouble, facing nationwide protests over his efforts to oust the country's chief justice and tilt the election process in his own favor.

Musharraf ordered troops to besiege the mosque last week after its militants fought gunbattles with police in their increasingly aggressive campaign to force Taliban-style Islamic codes on the city. He authorized a final round of negotiations Monday aimed at obtaining the militants' surrender or at least the release of hostages -- and when those talks were declared a failure, elite anti-terrorist commandos attacked yesterday at dawn.

Muslim clerics whom Musharraf recruited to mediate with the militants Monday suggested yesterday that he had attacked the mosque wrongfully because opportunities remained to pursue a negotiated solution.

The U.S. government backed Musharraf's decision. "The government of Pakistan has proceeded in a responsible way," said State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.

The government has kept all independent observers away from the site and doled out its information on the battle selectively. The Army spokesman, Gen. Arshad Waheed, gave casualty figures for the army (eight killed) and the guerrillas (as many as 50 killed and another 50 surrendered).

The dead included the mosque's deputy imam, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who the government said was killed in crossfire when troops summoned him from a hiding place to surrender.

Officials announced the rescue of 26 students believed held by the fighters against their will. But they declined even to estimate student casualties.

Protests erupted against the mosque takeover in conservative parts of Pakistan. The U.S. Embassy warned American citizens to limit their movements for fear of reprisal attacks.

Before the raid, Musharraf got solid backing from political commentators and ordinary people for confronting the Red Mosque, if belatedly.

"Most of my friends are supporting Musharraf, because these hard-line people are committing crimes and violence in the name of Islam," said Fakhr Irshad, an engineering student from Rawalpindi. "Everyone is asking why did he not take action six months ago," when militants at the mosque began their campaign by seizing a government library.

Musharraf will face questions from liberals and moderates about how a mosque only a mile from his office and from Pakistani intelligence headquarters managed to stock rifles, grenades, rocket launchers and explosives that Waheed said the militants used. Liberal Pakistani commentators say the military, notably its intelligence services, remain heavily salted with officers ready to assist, rather than confront, Islamic extremists.