1,200 surrender at Lal Masjid

Chief cleric's escape bid fails.

Over 1,200 radical students and militants holed up in the Lal Masjid complex surrendered to the government today even as the chief cleric of the mosque was caught trying to escape wearing a woman's burqa.

In a breakthrough that could lead to an early end to the tense stand-off, Tariq Pervez, the chief police commissioner, said a female police officer searching women fleeing the mosque's madrassa discovered Maulana Abdul Aziz under an all-enveloping black shroud. There were reports that his wife was also arrested.

Aziz, along with his younger brother Abdul Rashid Ghazi, was leading the heavily armed militant students of the madrassas run by the Lal Masjid. He tried to slip past the troops guarding the area.

The two brothers would be charged for act of terrorism, murder and abduction, said Minister of State for Information Tariq Azim.

After Aziz's arrest, 400 more militants and radical students surrendered taking the total number of those surrendering today to 1,200.

The developments came as security forces mounted pressure to flush out the mosque, a day after clashes left 21 persons dead and 150 injured. Over 200 burqa-clad girls were among those who surrendered and it is not known how many are still inside. Curfew was also imposed near the area.

Armoured Personnel Carriers guarded the mosque complex while helicopter gunships hovered on the top. There were reports that the helicopter gunships were fired upon by the militants within the mosque while flying close to the Lal Masjid as troops and militant clerics with suspected links to militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad exchanged heavy arms fire. President Pervez Musharraf has cleared an operation, if necessary, to flush out the militants, "DawnNews" television reported.

Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani told a press conference the government was working to "ensure minimum loss of human lives during any operation against Lal Masjid."

Soon after surrendering, many boys and girls told the media that several thousand students, believed to be heavily-armed hardcore elements, continued to resist surrender.

Till this evening the government gave seven deadlines to surrender and wanted to offer some more before it decided to conduct an operation to flush out the hardcore elements.

Estimates of the remaining militants varied from 2,000 to 5,000, some of whom were believed to be members of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad.

Lal Masjid's madrassas houses around 7,000 students, mostly hailing from poor families of remote areas of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).