ISLAMABAD, July 7: Among the parents of numerous students trapped inside the Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa a deep sense of despair and desperation prevailed on the fifth day of the standoff. By all indications the operation was fast turning into a hostage crisis.

Dozens of flashing ambulances, fire brigades and ‘rescue services’ vans parked on both sides of the heavily guarded streets close to the Lal Masjid, were a constant reminder of the worst case scenario. The security forces comprising the Rangers, army and police were deployed in full strength turning the capital’s otherwise peaceful Sector G-6 into a virtual war zone.

Pain, nervousness and fatigue was written on the faces of their parents and relatives who had travelled long distances to the capital after receiving SOS calls from their dear ones wanting exit from the seminary. On Saturday they looked emotionally and physically drained. The common refrain was that their children were hungry, thirsty and scared but were not allowed to leave.

Syed Abid Hussain was desperate to get his 21-year-old sister Sadia out of Jamia Hafsa where she was enrolled after their parents died four years back.

Half sobbing and suffering from a sense of guilt he narrated his story to a group of journalists standing on the Bazaar Road in G-6 late Friday night.

His sister had called three days back to tell him that things looked gloomy and she wished to make an exit. Hussain, her only sibling, advised her against it. He got on a bus and came here on getting more desperate calls from her later. Having arrived in Islamabad, he had not succeeded in getting in touch with his sister. He said her mobile was powered off since Friday evening and there seemed to be no way to establish contact with her.

Through the intervention of a well-connected concerned citizen Hussain could only get assistance of the authorities to make a personal announcement from outside the Lal Masjid. But even on Saturday there was no news about his sister.

A man from Azad Kashmir who had also come to fetch his teen- aged daughter was as fearful and grief-stricken. His daughter had called him and said she wanted to come out but could not because she would be killed. Just a few yards away stood equally perturbed and despondent men who had failed to retrieve their boys. They had come from Peshawar, Mardan, Taxila and Bajaur looking for their sons, nephews and brothers. They were told by their boys over the phone that they wanted to come out of the seminary but were not being allowed to leave. The man from Taxila who had come for his brother said two days back his other brother came here and was taken inside the seminary but never came out. He believed he had also been held hostage there.

According to these relatives their boys ranging between the ages of 17 to 24 years had clearly told them that the only way out was for them to escape at night. But they said the boys were scared that in the escape bid they may be caught or killed by the Rangers. The desperation of the relatives amplified as they lost even telephone contact with them.

A middle-aged woman told journalists on Saturday that she has been coming here for three days in hope of getting her daughter. Her daughter who had finished her course at Jamia Hafsa and was ready to leave on the day the crisis began. But she stayed back after her mother told her that she would not be able to pick her that day.

Like a number of other parents she complained that the Rangers were not properly facilitating.

Then there was this young boy Omar Farooq with a forlorn expression waiting for his older brother Mohammad Usman, a boarder of the seminary for over five years. He had come from Kotli Sathian in Lehthrar and had been making rounds since the last three days with his parents. They even checked at the Adiala jail but his name was not on the list.

On Friday just when Farooq was about to be taken to the Lal Masjid, there was fierce firing from inside and he changed his mind after the authorities warned him of the risk involved. Shortly, before him a man who had gone inside to fetch his son was shot in his foot by some militants and ordered to leave.

Talking to several relatives of the Lal Masjid students it transpired that initially many of them were reluctant to abandon the seminary but now they were terrified and desperate to leave. But now time did not seem to be on their side as they found themselves in the dreadful ‘no exit’ situation.

Meanwhile, the general fear is that the standoff may end in a bloody rescue operation in which many innocent lives are bound to be lost. But the government and security forces are clear that it be conducted as the last option.

Access to the curfew area restricted further for media on Saturday and like Maulana Abdul Rashid even journalists were demanding ‘safe passage’ to the scene close to Lal Masjid.

Efforts continued till late night to defuse the situation with the government, Ulema and politicians from the ruling and opposition parties all putting their heads together for a solution.

A number of politicians showed up in turns to talk to the media persons gathered in the vicinity of the Lal Masjid. On Saturday evening for the first time since the beginning of the crisis the two federal Information ministers also appeared on the scene separately. Later Maulana Samiul Haq’s son Hamidul Haq also came at night and said his bit.

The July 3 episode that began as an operation against the weaponised men of Lal Masjid is now beginning to acquire the colour of a humanitarian crisis testing the nerves and political acumen of the government.