ISLAMABAD, July 7: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said that the siege of the Lal Masjid-Jamia Hafsa complex will continue till the children made hostage by the militants are freed.

Presiding over a meeting to review the standoff on Saturday, the premier expressed dismay over the treatment meted out to Maulana Abdul Aziz by running his interview on PTV which, he said, had added to the difficulties of the government.

Talking to Dawn after the meeting, Minister of State for Information Tariq Azeem Khan said the government’s decision to continue with the status quo was based on its concern for human lives. He brushed aside assertions that the final showdown had been delayed to overshadow the opposition’s Multi-Party Conference in London.

In reply to a question, he said the government was determined to ensure that the operation was not initiated as long as a single child or female student remained hostage.

He said although PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was back from Lahore, he had not taken any fresh initiative for the resolution of the Lal Masjid issue after Maulana Rashid Ghazi’s refusal to accept his offer on Friday.

Speaking at the meeting, Prime Minister Aziz said: “The government wants to resolve the issue promptly but with minimum loss of life.” He said the operation was delayed to protect lives of women and children who had been made hostage by extremists.

The Prime Minister expressed concern over reports that women and children had been detained and made hostage by the extremists inside Jamia Hafsa.

He said the government would facilitate the release and return of hostages and every possible step would be taken to facilitate the parents.

The government, he said, had encouraged mediation by ulema, parliamentarians, social workers and others for the release of hostages, but their efforts had not yielded positive results so far.

Mr Aziz shared the concern of the people of the area under curfew, commended their cooperation and understanding and assured that the government would take every step to solve their problems as early as possible.

A delegation of the MMA and PML parliamentarians from Fata also met the premier and offered their services to resolve the Lal Masjid issue and requested him to avoid further bloodshed.

The prime minister called upon all the political parties to come forward and play their part for an early resolution of the crisis.

He said the extremists inside Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa were only serving the cause of those who want to spoil the image of Islam.

The parliamentarians included Maulana Abdul Malik, Maulana Merajuddin, Maulvi Nek Zaman, Sardar Tufail Ahmed and Senator Amin Dadabhoy.