Pak official killed in Lal Masjid operation, 152 students released

Islamabad, July 8 (UNI) A senior Pakistani army official has been killed and another injured overnight during the ongoing clashes between armed student radicals and government forces at the Lal Masjid.

Lieutenant Colonel Haroon Islam, who was commanding the elite commando or Special Services Group (SSG) force, sustained fatal injuries yesterday night while trying to blast through the walls of the heavily guarded mosque. An army major was also injured but was out of danger.

Chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad confirmed the death.

At least 20 people have been killed in the violence that erupted last Tuesday following clashes between the security personnel, who had laid seige to the mosque.

However, Deputy administrator of the mosque Abdul Rashid Ghazi said 280 women and 25 men were killed during the last night's operation.

President Pervez Musharraf, who was in southwestern town of Turbat yesterday gave the militants a '' surrender-or-die'' ultimatum and asked Ghazi and his companions to surrender.

''They should surrender or otherwise they will be killed,'' he said.

He said the only reason for refraining from a final strike against the mosque was to avoid the loss of innocent lives. There were hundreds of women and children reportedly inside the mosque.

Local media reports say that Ghazi has several al-Qaeda linked militants leading the fighting, and hundreds of women and children hostages.

However, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz expressed his unawareness about the identity of the foreign militants present inside the mosque.

''The kind of resistance being put up by the militants shows that they are well trained,'' he told reporters in Islamabad after meeting the first batch of 152 male students of the mosque released by the government today evening.

He again asked the Islamists inside the mosque to release innocent women and children and surrender to authorities.

The 152 boys of 15-18 years of age, were studying in Jamia Faridiya, the seminaries affiliated to the mosque. However, when standoff triggered between security forces and Islamists, they were in the Lal Masjid.

These boys, who came out of the mosque from Wednesday to Friday, were detained in Rawalpindi's Adiala jail. They were brought to a sports complex in Islamabad where authorities have set up a facilitation centre.

Parents of some 20 boys arrived at the centre to bring back their children while remaining ones would go back after their families identified them.

UNI