Pakistan releases two religious students

ISLAMABAD, May 20 (Reuters) Pakistani authorities released two religious students today in an apparent move to appease radicals at an Islamabad mosque who are holding two policemen hostage.

The radicals are demanding the release of nine other religious students being held by the authorities in return for the policemen.

Four plainclothes police were snatched on Friday by students from outside the mosque in the heart of Islamabad, but two were released a day later in what a senior cleric called a ''gesture of goodwill''.

''The two policemen are in our custody and it is very clear that as soon as our people come out, we will release them,'' Abdul Rashid Ghazi, a senior cleric at Islamabad's Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, told a news conference.

The mosque has been at odds with the authorities since January, when female students occupied a library next to the mosque's compound to protest against the destruction of several mosques illegally constructed on state-owned land.

Ghazi warned that any action by the government against him or his students would provoke a struggle against the government.

''If we are attacked, we will launch jihad,'' he said.

A court yesterday ordered the release of five of the students but they were still being held because the bail money had not been paid.

A police official said the court decision was a coincidence and had nothing to do with the threat by the cleric.

The radicals of Lal Masjid have briefly abducted police before, but their anti-vice campaign in the city caused the biggest stir.

They raided a nearby bordello, briefly detaining three women, and they put pressure on owners of music and video shops to shut their businesses.

Last month, the mosque's top cleric, Abdul Aziz, threatened to unleash suicide bombers if the government used force to stop his movement from establishing its own Islamic sharia courts.

The government has sought to appease the radicals by telling them that their grievances will be dealt with, and a leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League said last month that all issues have been settled amicably through negotiation.

Liberals have been disturbed by the government's failure to act more forcibly against religious radicals in the face of what the media is calling a growing trend of ''Talibanisation'' in Pakistan.

Reuters SR DB2243