Pakistan standoff turns deadly

The Baltimore Sun

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- A six-month standoff between Pakistani authorities and followers of two radical clerics erupted yesterday into a shootout in the heart of the capital that left at least nine people dead.

The confrontation at the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, coincides with a political crisis that has left the president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, with a precarious grip on power. Adding to the chaos, record flooding over the past week in the country's south has driven hundreds of thousands from their homes.

Fighting around the mosque complex, not far from the presidential compound, parliament and many embassies, raised the specter of an all-out battle between security forces and radical students who have armed themselves with assault rifles and fortified the mosque.

The dead included a paramilitary policeman and a journalist. Government officials said dozens of people were injured.

In the aftermath of the shootings, supporters of the students attacked two government buildings, pelting them with stones and setting cars on fire in the parking lots.

Militants holed up in the mosque compound have demanded that Pakistan adhere to Sharia, or Islamic law. For months they have been staging hit-and-run attacks in the capital against video stores, alcohol merchants and massage parlors that the Islamists say are fronts for prostitution. They have kidnapped a number of police officers, usually releasing them unharmed after a short time.

Musharraf has been criticized for failing to crack down on the students but has said that he did not want to trigger a bloodbath by sending police to overrun the compound. The radicals have threatened to unleash suicide bombers in the capital.

Some analysts say the students' tactics have bolstered the president during the political crisis by enabling him to portray himself as the last bulwark against Islamic extremists in Pakistan. Musharraf is a key ally of the West in the fight against the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.

The Pakistani leader, who seized power in a bloodless coup eight years ago, has been under public pressure to renounce his position as army chief and allow free elections.

Yesterday's fighting sent bullets and clouds of tear gas into the residential area surrounding the mosque compound. Many people fled their homes.

Witnesses and government officials said the violence began when dozens of students, some armed, marched on police barricades near the complex. Police initially responded with tear gas, but shooting quickly broke out.

Abdul Rashid Ghazi, a cleric who presides over the mosque with his brother, said authorities provoked the shootout.

The mosque standoff began as a dispute over government plans to demolish mosques built on land seized illegally. But it rapidly snowballed, with the students' occupation of a children's library becoming a rallying point for a large number of militant followers.

Pakistani authorities said they would seek a negotiated solution despite the violence.

"We are exercising restraint and want the standoff not to escalate," said Information Minister Mohammed Ali Durrani.

Members of an anti-terrorist squad took up positions on nearby rooftops, and paramilitary troops moved into a school building next to the complex.

Authorities also cut electricity to the mosque and to the attached madrasas, or religious seminaries, which have about 5,000 students.

Mubashir Zaidi and Laura King write for the Los Angeles Times.

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