• 50 militants, eight troops killed
• Jamia Hafsa head Umme Hassan comes out of complex
• Mosque, southern part of madressah cleared: ISPR
• G-6 sector jolted by big bangs of grenades, heavy shelling
• Life in Islamabad paralysed
• Ghazi’s family untraced
ISLAMABAD, July 10: Rebel cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi was killed as a blitz led by army commandos almost crushed the last stand of religious militants at Islamabad's Lal Masjid-Jamia Hafsa compound on Tuesday after the failure of last-minute peace moves led to fierce battles that the government said took at least 58 lives on both sides.
Sporadic gunfire and blasts were still being heard, till our going to press, from the curfew-bound complex in the centre of the capital, after government spokesmen said at least 50 militants and eight troops were killed on a day of the most intense fighting of the week-old operation, which sent shockwaves across the country and whose handling could cost the government politically.
But they said the toll could be much higher when a correct body count would be possible at the end of the operation which was launched on July 4, a day after at least nine people were killed and about 150 wounded when tensions erupted into street battles between security forces and militants around the Lal Masjid and adjoining Jamia Hafsa madressah.
Some other sources said that more than 80 militants were killed on Tuesday after the security forces launched their final assault at about 4.30am following the breakdown of night-long negotiations seeking a peaceful end to the impasse although the two sides were at one point reported to have nearly clinched an agreement to give a so-called “safe passage” to Abdul Rashid Ghazi.
OPERATION NOT OVER: “The operation is still in progress,” top military spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad told a late evening news conference hours after the authorities said Ghazi was killed in “crossfire” between security forces and militants who accompanied him when he came out of his hideout at the complex.
“We have cleared the mosque and southern part of the madressah and, while progressing, in one of the bases Abdul Rashid Ghazi and his companions were killed,” said Gen Arshad, the Director-General of the Inter-Services Public Relations Directorate (ISPR).
He said the troops later advanced towards the house of Ghazi and other quarters where some exchange of fire took place and added: “The operation is likely to continue tonight and we will clear the entire mosque and madressah complex.”
The ISPR chief estimated the death toll at the madressah complex at more than 50 but said exact figures were not available at the moment because the first priority of the authorities was to clear the area of heavily armed and very well-trained militants.
"The objective of the operation was to clear the madressah complex of the militants and that has not ended as yet,” he said. “It is very clear to us that whoever takes up arms against the troops will be taken to task.”
Gen Arshad said a total of 86 people came out of the madressah complex on Tuesday, including Umma Hassan, the head of the madressah, and wife of Ghazi's elder brother, Maulana Abdul Aziz, who was arrested on Wednesday while trying to escape clad in a burqa. Others included men, women and children, and their screening process was being carried out.
The ISPR chief said some parts of the complex were yet to be cleared and all the militants would be taken to task.
He said he was not aware of the whereabouts of family members of Ghazi.
He would also not tell the location of the body of Ghazi, saying bodies would be taken out of the complex after the operation was complete and that it was not yet clear as to how many people were lying dead inside.
However, he put the casualty figure of troops at eight “shaheed” and 29 wounded.
WHY IT TOOK SO LONG: About prolongation of the operation, the ISPR chief cited three difficulties faced by the troops -- the aim to ensure safety of women and children, well-armed militants who put up a lot of resistance, and a very difficult situation because of a multi-storeyed complex built in a haphazard manner where the troops had to progress from room to room.
Asked about the presence of any foreign militants inside the complex, Gen Arshad said there had been such reports but it was “too early to say anything about that” while the operation was not over.
“Once it is done, then the investigations would be started to reach any conclusion.”
He sidestepped repeated questions about casualties of women and children, but interior ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema, who was present with him, said the no body of any woman or a child was encountered inside the complex so far.
Asked why Edhi Foundation chief Abdul Sattar Edhi had been asked by authorities to arrange 800 shrouds when they could confirm the deaths of only 50 militants and eight troops, Gen Arshad said the move was meant to prepare for all contingencies.
Bodies of the dead were sent to various hospitals in Islamabad and Rawalpindi where reporters were barred and at times faced rude behaviour from security officials while trying to seek information about the casualties.
RESIDENTS’ ORDEAL: Islamabad's densely populated Sector G-6, where Lal Masjid is located, and the areas in its vicinity were jolted by big bangs of grenades, heavy shelling and other heavy arms used in the battle early in the morning.
The entire federal capital was declared a red zone as there was a complete ban on people's entry and exit from morning to evening.
Life in Islamabad was paralysed and most residents went on rooftops to see clouds of thick black smoke over Lal Masjid.
The fighting was so horrifying that bullets of heavy guns hit many multi-storeyed buildings located four to five kilometres away from Lal Masjid.
Heavy movement of troops continued around Lal Masjid throughout the day with machinegun-fitted armoured personnel carriers and trucks carrying armed troops.
Some of the parents of the children, who did not come out of the mosque or were shifted to other places without informing them, started weeping when they were told that the operation had almost concluded.
Interior ministry spokesman Javed Cheema said that Ghazi was killed along with 12 militants.
Although the authorities said the security forces were in complete control of the mosque-madressah complex, there were suggestions there would be another round of search operation in the area before the place is declared safe and curfew is lifted.
SPECIAL coverage of the Lal Masjid endgame by Syed Irfan Raza, Mohammad Asghar, Munawer Azeem, Khawar Ghumman, Ahmed Hassan, Amir Wasim, Khaleeq Kiani and Raja Asghar
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