Red Mosque siege declared over

The Red Mosque stand off has ended with the Pakistan military scoring a victory. Abdul Rashid Ghazi met his demise. Ghazi’s death did not spark an anti-Musharraf rebellion in Pakistan as many Islamists had hope; it merely ended the siege of hate-monger radicals at the Red Mosque.

JRH 7/11/07
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Red Mosque siege declared over

Declan Walsh in Islamabad
Wednesday July 11, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Pakistan's prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, declared the Red Mosque siege over today, saying that government forces had regained full control of the compound after a 36-hour assault. "The operation is over. Everybody who was inside is out," Mr Aziz said. There had been "pretty reliable and accurate intelligence" about the mosque compound prior to the assault, but the security forces were still surprised by the ferocity of the resistance.

"These were trained, hardcore militants," he said.

A senior government official added that a number of foreigners - Uzbeks, Chechens, Tajiks and Afghans - had been arrested and were undergoing interrogation. Mr Aziz also said that the number of casualties had been much lower than expected. "We have not found any body of a woman or child yet," he said. "The government's policy ... has been vindicated.

"Now we will do the mopping up." But with the security forces restricting access to local hospitals, the government's refusal to release an updated official death toll added to fears that the actual number of READ THE REST ...