Graphic - the Red Mosque in Islamabad

Maqsood Ahmed sat in a corner of the tent packed with parents praying for news of their children trapped in the besieged Red Mosque. An impoverished farmer from northern Pakistan, he had been waiting for five days to be reunited with his 12-year-old son, who lived in the seminary at the mosque.

His worst fears were realised as dawn broke yesterday, when explosions were heard coming from the mosque. “I know he would be dead by now,” he said, choking back tears.

His son, Mansoor, was among scores of students held hostage by the militants inside the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in the centre of Islamabad.

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• In pictures: Red Mosque siege aftermath

Only 20 boys were rescued by security forces who launched the final assault on the mosque. Others, including Mansoor, were still missing as the military cleared the sprawling compound by nightfall, engaging in gun battles with militants, room by room.

Heavy smoke drifted over the mosque complex yesterday, only a few miles from the presidential palace and the parliament building. Gunfire and explosions thundered across the city as the codenamed Operation Silence unfolded. At times it seemed as if the entire complex was being flattened.

About 70 militants and 12 soldiers died in the fighting. Among the dead was Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the firebrand cleric who led the rebels during the stand-off with Pakistan’s security forces, and who declared that he would rather die than surrender.

He assumed command after Maulana Abdul Aziz, his elder brother and chief prayer leader, was caught last week trying to escape while wearing a burka. Before being killed Ghazi was reported to have said that British citizens had been schooled at the mosque, leading to fears that they may be amongst the dead.

The security forces said that Ghazi’s body was found in the basement of the mosque after he was apparently caught in the crossfire. He had hoped that his death would spark an Islamic revolution in Pakistan.

Armed with machineguns, rocket launchers and grenades, the militants held out in the mosque against security forces who had laid siege to the complex since July 3. About two dozen women and girls dressed in burkas fled from the mosque as the the final assault began. Among them was Umme Hasan, the wife of Maulana Abdul Aziz. The head of the Jamia Hafsa, the seminary for women, she was known for her extreme views and claimed to have trained her students to become suicide bombers.

President Musharraf ordered his troops to enter the mosque after an emergency meeting yesterday and a final attempt to resolve the week-long stand-off failed. Hundreds of special forces stormed the mosque at dawn but did not dislodge the militants until well into the night.

Pakistani officials said that they had done everything to avoid a bloodbath that thedy feared would have brought worldwide condemnation of President Musharraf’s embattled administration.

It was not clear how many non-combatants were being held hostage or used as human shields. Last week several of those who left the mosque, including young women, said that their colleagues were there of their own free will and were prepared to die.

Authorities barred journalists from the hospital where the dead and wounded were taken.

The raid marked one of the largest crackdowns on Islamic militants since General Musharraf took power in a coup in 1999. After the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001, the military ruler forged an anti-terrorism alliance with Washington, causing intense anger among many Muslims in Pakistan.

The siege of one of the capital’s most prominent mosques was prompted by clashes between security forces and supporters of the hardline clerics who tried to impose their version of Islamic morality in Islamabad. Their followers raided music shops and brothels, bullying anyone found breaking their strict moral code. The campaign heaped embarrassment on General Musharraf, who was criticised over his administration’s failure to control extremist religious schools.

Yesterday’s intervention earned plaudits from moderate Pakistanis and Western governments who had expressed frustration over his inaction in the past. It has also enraged Islamists.

Islamic parties accused General Musharraf of responsibility for a massacre at the mosque and called for nationwide protests. “Musharraf has launched the operation to please America,” said Liaquat Baluch, a leader of Muttehida Majlis Amal, an alliance of six Islamic political parties. “He is now become a threat to national security and has to be removed.”

Political analysts believe that a confrontation between the Government and Islamists is now unavoidable. “It is a defining moment for both the country and the nation in the battle against militancy,” said Shireen Mazari, the chairwoman of the Institute for Strategic Studies, based in Islamabad. “There is no going back.”

Militant mosque

— The Red Mosque is the second-largest mosque in Islamabad, able to hold 4,000 people for prayer

— The area originally seized by the militants is 4.1 acres, including the mosque, a meeting hall, a small children’s library, and the three-storey Jamia Hafsa madrassa

— The compound has 75 rooms, large subterranean storage areas and courtyards

— The madrassa has an estimated 4,300 students, many of whom live on the site

— Jamia Faridia, the mosque’s school for boys, located nearby, has 5,000 students

— Pupils in the madrassa sleep in classrooms, rolling their bedding away at the start of each day before their studies

— According to Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the rebel leader during the standoff, the boys were organised into a frontline, and the girls into a second line of defence

— The Red Mosque is about 1.2 miles (2km) from the Supreme Court of Pakistan and from Parliament House, and just over half a kilometer from the Ministry of Religious Affairs

Sources: Times Research; Google Earth

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