Operation Silence Enters Second Phase

Islamabad, July 11 (UNI) The Pakistani military said today that the second phase of operation inside the Lal Masjid complex has commenced to clear the area of weapons including landmines and militants, if any.

"In the second phase, combing and cleaning of the complex is required to be done and it has started concurrently with operation of the Special Services Group(SSG)," chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told reporters in Islamabad almost 34 hours after operation silence was launched in the mosque.

He said he would be able to give the exact figures of casualties of militants and weapons seized from the mosque only after the completion of the second phase of the operation.

He said ten security forces' personnel were killed and another 33 were injured since the launch of the operation. Officials put the militants death toll at 53,fearing it may rose further.

Arshad said the militants were well trained and heavily armed, adding that the mosque is almost cleansed of figthers. His remarks came against the backdrop of media reports that more than 60 hardcore militants linked to al-Qaeda were present in the complex.

However, he did not disclose the identity of militants killed during the operation, saying it will be possible on completion of the operation.

The firebrand deputy administrator of the mosque Abdul Rashid Ghazi was also killed in cross fire between militants and commandos yesterday after he was found holed up in one of the basements of the complex. He had vowed to die rather than surrender.

In his last telephonic talk, Ghazi had termed the operation as a naked aggression and said people would not spare rulers and their families.

"Postmortum on Ghazi's body had been done and it will now be flown to his ancestral village," Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema told reporters.

He said that his elder brother Abdul Aziz would accompany the body and attend the funeral. Military operation against Lal Masjid had begun early on Tuesday after talks between the government and Ghazi collapsed.

UNI