Pakistani soldiers patrol near Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, during a curfew in Islamabad July 8, 2007. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery >>>
ISLAMABAD, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Abdul Rashid Ghazi, deputy chief of Lal Masjid mosque claimed Sunday that 335 religious students were killed in the overnight operation launched by the Pakistani army on Saturday, local TV channel reported.
Rashid said that 310 female and 25 male students were killed in overnight army bombing of the compound of Las Masjid located in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.
There was no official confirmation of Rashid's claim.
The bombing was expected to blow up sections of the walls and make holes in the compound so that the students who had been taken hostages could escape, an army spokesman said.
The five-day heaviest firing and explosions continued late Saturday night and the security forces made advancement towards Lal Masjid, Jamia Hafsa.
15 armored vehicles advanced from the rear side of the besieged building and opened fire, and the electricity of the areas near Lal Masjid was cut off.
ISLAMABAD, July 8 (Xinhua) -- The Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema denied the claim of Lal Masjid that the operation on Saturday night claimed the lives of over 300 students in the mosque, the private Pakistani Geo TV channel reported Sunday. Full story
ISLAMABAD, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday said remaining hard-line militants in Islamabad-based Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, should surrender or die,TV channels reported.
Musharraf made the remarks while talking to reporters during a visit to Pakistan's flood-hit southwestern province of Baluchistan. Full story
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