Operation Silence on Lal Masjid & Jamia Hifza | Aaj News
Operation Silence on Lal Masjid & Jamia Hifza | Aaj News
Talk Shows Central is Pakistan Most Loved and most watched Talk Shows and Entertainment channel in the globe serving with. Minute To Minute Breaking News, Talk Shows, Entertainment And Comedy Programs
► Subscribe us
► Website -
► Facebook -
► Twitter -
All aspects about Operation Silence on Lal Masjid Jamia Hifza
Subscribe to our channel
All aspects and complete details about Operation Silence on Lal Masjid Jamia Hifza Documentary AAJ NEWS
WRAP Police patrols at Red Mosque, protest, AP pix inside mosque
Islamabad
1. Tracking exterior of Jamia Hafsa (girl's religious school next to the mosque), with Pakistani military outside
2. Wide of Lal Masjid (Red Mosque), behind barbed wire
3. Close of damaged minaret
4. Low angle shot of paramilitary soldiers inside mosque, with holes in the roof from shrapnel
5. Armed troops inside mosque
6. Close of burnt ceiling fan
7. Soldiers outside mosque
8. Rocket damage to wall
9. Exterior of Jamia Hafsa
10. Smoking debris inside seminary
11. Close of smouldering fire
12. Bullet holes in railing, with soldier in the background
13. Media and soldiers inside seminary corridor
14. Close of signboard, which reads in Arabic Class 1B
15. Pan of damaged classroom, with bullet holes visible on the walls
16. Soldiers in front of destroyed portion of seminary
17. Tilt up blast damage on the staircase
18. Pakistan Army spokesperson Major General Waheed Arshad and media in front of Jamia Hafsa
19. SOUNDBITE: (English) Major General Waheed Arshad, Pakistani Army spokesman:
As far as the casualties are concerned, I just said that 75 bodies have been recovered. As far as the military casualties, this includes the (paramilitary) Rangers also, there are a total of 44 injured and 11 shaheed (killed).
20. Pan of display of military equipment recovered from militants inside mosque, radios, ammunition, automatic weaponry
21. Close of anti-tank mine
22. Pan of mines, gas masks and rockets
23. Close of recovered machine guns
24. Pan of petrol bombs in soft drink bottles
25. SOUNDBITE: (English) Major General Waheed Arshad, Pakistani Army spokesman:
This will be an end to all kind of speculating, speculative reporting and wrong reporting that has been done on various channels and various other parts of the media.
26. Wide of soldiers in front of mosque
AP TELEVISION
Lahore
27. Wide shot of lawyers, members of opposition political parties protesting against Red Mosque siege
28. Mid of lawyers chanting, UPSOUND (Urdu) Musharraf is a killer.
29. Political party supporters carrying flags
30. Close of lawyer chanting
31. Pan of protestors in front of Punjab provincial assembly building
32. SOUNDBITE: (Urdu) Hameed Ul Din Mashraqi, leader of Khaksar Tahriq
We can dispute the methods which Ghazi (Ghazi Abdul Rasheed) adopted, but the cause for which he was martyred is pious. He raised the image of Islam.
33. Various of protesters praying
STORYLINE
The media were allowed inside the Red Mosque in Islamabad for the first time on Thursday, after at least 108 people were killed in eight days of fighting between suspected militants and the Pakistani army.
A day after Pakistani commandos completed their bloody assault, the shattered masonry and blackened interiors of Islamabad's sprawling Red Mosque complex were testament to a fierce battle between crack troops and hardened militants.
Opening its tangled barbed wire cordons around the mosque for the first time, the army on Thursday gave journalists a tour of the battleground, entering through bent-back metal gates of the Jamia Hafsa, a girl's religious
school next to the mosque.
Inside and out, the concrete and white plaster walls were riddled by gunfire from commandos who breached the southern walls of the four-story building and traded fire with its defenders.
Militants appeared to have prepared firing positions, some on the exterior fortified with sand bags.
But the stiffest resistance came from basement rooms where the Red Mosque's pro-Taliban cleric, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, was shot dead after refusing to surrender.
Ghazi, who had spearheaded a vigilante, anti-vice campaign in the capital, was buried in his home village in Punjab province on Thursday.
The white dome, however, appeared undamaged.
You can license this story through AP Archive:
Find out more about AP Archive:
Lal Masjid Islamabad Pakistan Part 1
Lal Masjid Islamabad Pakistan
what happened in Lal Masjid Islamabad Pakistan is for your information. Piyarey Pakistan
WRAP Army storms Red Mosque; gunfire, AP cover of military presser
AP Television News
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Flash of explosion in sky, audio explosion as army operation against mosque recommences within minutes of announcement of talks failure
AP Television News
++NIGHT SHOT+
2. Night sky, audio of explosion
AP Television News
3. Negotiators including former PM and leader of Musharraf's ruling party PML(Q), Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Information Minister Mohammed Ali Durrani and Religious Affairs Minister Ejaz ul-Haq walking along
AP Television News
++NIGHT SHOTS++
4. Wide of media briefing
5. SOUNDBITE: (Urdu) Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, former Pakistani prime minister:
I have never been so disappointed in my whole life but today I am going back disappointed. We have tried and offered all options. So far we have done so many things. Whatever we are feeling, later people will point at us. But the only reason why we did this is that we want to get the children and women out of there.
AP Television News
6. Dawn over the mosque
AP Television News
7. Mid of dawn over mosque
AP Television News
++QUALITY AS INCOMING++
8. Various top shots of soldiers stationed near mosque, AUDIO of gunfire and explosions
AP Television News
9. Black smoke rising from compound, filmed from window, AUDIO: explosion
AP Television News
10. Zoom to smoke column rising over Aabpara market area, AUDIO: gunfire
11. Ambulances driving past with sirens on
12. Army checkpoint
13. Army officer's convoy passing, AUDIO: gunfire
14. Wide of site AUDIO of gunshots
AP Television News
15. Armoured car driving towards compound
16. Ambulances driving towards Red Mosque
AP Television News
17. Various of injured soldier being carried by doctors and surrounded by media
18. Ambulance carrying injured soldier driving off (believed towards nearby Pakistan Military Hospital)
AP Television News
19. Female police officers walking
20. SOUNDBITE: (Urdu) Mehmood, no full name given, relative of 20 year-old Sher Ahmed, who he believes to be still holed up in the Red Mosque:
I don't know if he's alive or dead. I just know he is inside.
21. Side shot of Mehmood talking on the phone
22. Mehmood starts sobbing, his hands cover his face
AP Television News
23. Wide of military news conference
24. SOUNDBITE: (English) General Waheed Arshad, Pakistan Army spokesman:
Militants have taken positions in almost every room. They are fighting from room to room, they have positions in the basement, on the stairs, on the verandas. Clearing a complex which has more than 75 rooms and basements and large courtyards does take time and then as I said there are two reasons, one is as I said woman and children which makes us go slow and so that there is not collateral damage and unnecessary loses of lives.
25. Wide of news conference
26. SOUNDBITE: (English) General Waheed Arshad, Pakistan Army spokesman:
There are terrorists there, they have heavy weapons so one needs to be very careful in execution.
AP Television News
27. Man pointing to damage in Blue Area of Islamabad where stray bullets have hit
28. Close of window pane where bullet hit
29. Men gathered in the street
30. Men sitting on a wall
31. Wide of Rehmatullah Khalil, Member of National Assembly sitting on a sofa
32. Close-up hands
33. SOUNDBITE (Urdu) Rehmatullah Khalil, Member of National Assembly:
The draft that had been decided between Ghazi and the delegation had been totally changed when it came back from government officials, the conditions of the draft had been changed and they (meaning the government) are alleging that Ghazi refused. Why should Ghazi have refused? The conditions that we decided with them, were not offered and the government gave half an hour to agree on the draft of conditions otherwise they would choose the other way.
You can license this story through AP Archive:
Find out more about AP Archive:
WRAP Nine dead in shooting at radical mosque, aftermath
1. Wide of women seminary students running, as smoke rises in background AUDIO: Gun fire
2. Mid of police vehicle, clouds of tear gas come into shot and obscure vehicle
3. Women and children running
4. Wide pan of female students on rooftop
5. Mid of student with gun
6. Mid of student with gun and wearing gas mask
7. Injured female student being loaded into van
8. SOUNDBITE: (Urdu) Amna, Vox Pop:
They have opened fire on us. One girl is injured and we will start suicide bombings.
9. Students picking objects off the ground and throwing them AUDIO: Gun fire
10. Various of armed students AUDIO: Gun fire
11. Injured girl being led to ambulance
12. Ambulances arriving at scene of clashes between security forces and supporters of radical Lal Masjid (Red Mosque)
13. Lal Masjid supporters running in street
14. Female members of Jamia Hafsa seminary chant 'There is only one god'
15. Close-up of woman
16. Lal Mosque member wearing gas mask and holding a gun, standing behind sandbags
17. Various of rioters attacking perimeter wall of environment ministry building, across the street from the mosque
18. Smoke rising from Environment Ministry building
19. Rioters gathered in front of burning ministry building
20. Mid of the building on fire
21. Injured man being carried away by other rioters
22. Injured youth being put into ambulance
23. Ambulance speeds away
24. Wide of police firing tear gas from armoured car
25. Wide exterior shot of Polyclinic Hospital
26. Police and paramilitary rangers standing guard
27. Injured man being brought into hospital in wheelchair
28. Ambulances arriving at hospital
++NIGHT SHOTS++
29. Police armoured cars blocking road near Lal Masjid (Red Mosque)
30. Policemen talking
31. Pan bystanders to ambulances heading toward Lal Masjid (Red Mosque)
32. Tracking shots of people run for cover with AUDIO: gunfire
33. SOUNDBITE: (Urdu) Javed Iqbal, local resident:
The situation is that there is firing in the air from those inside (the mosque) and out (the police). That's it. The people here are worried.
34. Armed policeman from anti-terrorist squad standing on guard near market
35. Close of gun barrel, passers-by behind
36. Anti-terrorist squad policeman on guard
STORYLINE:
Street battles between Islamic radicals and security forces at a mosque in the Pakistani capital left at least nine people dead on Tuesday, adding to the country's sense of crisis.
Militant supporters of the mosque later pelted two government buildings, including the Ministry of Environment, with rocks and set them ablaze, and torched a dozen cars in the ministry's lot.
The battle marked a major escalation in a six-month standoff at the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, whose clerics have challenged the military-led government by mounting a vigilante anti-vice campaign in Islamabad.
At nightfall, the city's top security official, said a ceasefire had been reached with the militants.
Deputy Interior Minister Zafar Warriach said the dead included four students, three civilians, one soldier and a journalist.
However, clerics at the mosque claimed that 10 of their supporters died, according to a lawmaker sent to mediate.
The minister said 148 were injured, most of them by tear gas fired by security forces.
Trouble began when student followers of the mosque, including young men with guns and dozens of women wearing black burqas, rushed toward a nearby police checkpoint early on Tuesday afternoon.
Police and paramilitary Rangers fired tear gas and, as the students retreated, an Associated Press photographer saw at least four male students, some of them masked, fire shots toward security forces about 200 meters
(220 yards) away.
Gunfire was also heard from the police position.
You can license this story through AP Archive:
Find out more about AP Archive:
Lal Masjid Islamabad Pakistan Part 2
Lal Masjid Islamabad Pakistan
what happened in Lal Masjid Islamabad Pakistan is for your information. Piyarey Pakistan
Witness Special - Inside the Red Mosque - 27 Jul 07 - Part 1
Subscribe to our channel
In the days leading up to the storming of the Red Mosque, Al Jazeera's Rageh Omaar gained exclusive access. He and his team were the last TV crew inside the mosque before the siege began and filmed the last interview with Abdul Rashid Ghazi, one of the mosque's leaders, before his death.
At Al Jazeera English, we focus on people and events that affect people's lives. We bring topics to light that often go under-reported, listening to all sides of the story and giving a 'voice to the voiceless.'
Reaching more than 270 million households in over 140 countries across the globe, our viewers trust Al Jazeera English to keep them informed, inspired, and entertained.
Our impartial, fact-based reporting wins worldwide praise and respect. It is our unique brand of journalism that the world has come to rely on.
We are reshaping global media and constantly working to strengthen our reputation as one of the world's most respected news and current affairs channels.
Social Media links:
Facebook:
Instagram:
Twitter:
Website:
google+:
The Lion of the Lal Masjid Islamabad Pakistan
The Lion of the Lal Masjid Islamabad Pakistan, what happened in Lal Masjid Islamabad Pakistan is for your information. Piyarey Pakistan
The Lion of the Lal Masjid Islamabad Pakistan
Mufti Tariq Masood speech on Lal Masjid Operation In Islamabad Pakistan
WRAP Army deployed, cleric arrest, demo ADDS shooting, s'bite
SHOTLIST
++NIGHT SHOTS++
Islamabad
1. Wide of police car inside curfew area near Lal Masjid (Red Mosque)
2. Crowd
3. Mosque's chief cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz (with grey beard) being put into rear passenger seat of police car, armed policeman getting into car and car driving away
++DAY SHOTS++
Islamabad
4. Wide top view of Islamabad city, Margalla Hills behind
5. Wide top view of skyline with smoke from tear gas rising over location of Lal Masjid, President's House behind
6. Pakistan army 'Cobra' attack helicopter flying over tree tops
7. Wide of three Cobras flying over rooftops, zoom in
Islamabad
8. Various army personnel carrier and troops imposing curfew on sector of Islamabad containing the Lal Masjid
9. Wide of a man running along the walls of Lal (Red) Mosque as security forces shoot at him for breaking the curfew, he is shot and falls
10. Cutaway of two onlookers
11. Mid of injured man trying to crawl away from firing zone
12. Cutaway of an unattended sandbagged post on top of Lal Masjid
13. Mid of women exiting Lal Mosque in order to surrender to authorities
14. Mid of relatives helping with belongings of surrendering female student
15. Various of male students of Lal Mosque surrendering to security forces, holding hands in air above them
16. Set up of spokesperson for Interior Ministry at news conference
17. SOUNDBITE: (English) Brigadier Iqbal Cheema, Interior Ministry spokesman:
We have to be patient. There are human beings inside. There are people inside. There are girls and women inside. There are children inside. So we have to take all these things into (account). Its just not (a question of) straightaway storming into the building.
18. Wide of news conference
Quetta
19. Wide of protesters marching, chanting slogans
20. Protester chanting: (Urdu) This Taliban blood revolution will come
21. Wide back view of march
22. Armed police at march
23. Close of armed policeman
24. Crowd burning posters of Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf
25. Wide of crowd burning posters and chanting slogans
STORYLINE:
The chief cleric of a radical mosque in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, was arrested and more than one-thousand of his followers surrendered on Wednesday as troops backed by armoured vehicles and helicopters tightened their siege of the complex, officials said.
Female police officers searching women fleeing the mosque's seminary discovered Maulana Abdul Aziz under a black head-to-toe veil, said Khalid Pervez, the city's top administrator.
AP Television filmed plainclothes police bundling the grey-bearded cleric into the back of a car which then drove off.
A government spokesman said that a deadline for a total surrender, which expired earlier on Wednesday, had been extended as authorities continued to hunt for the mosque's deputy leader, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who is Aziz's brother.
We have to be patient. There are human beings inside. There are people inside. There are girls and women inside. There are children inside, said Interior Ministry spokesman, Brigadier Iqbal Cheema.
The militants had been ordered to lay down their arms and surrender by 11 a.m. (0600 GMT).
As evening fell, sporadic gunfire erupted around the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, and at an adjacent women's seminary while three helicopter gunships circled overhead.
The government said all women and children would be granted amnesty but males involved in killings and other crimes as well as the mosque's clerics would face legal action.
The events came after a day of bloody clashes at the mosque on Tuesday between security forces and armed militants holed up in the sprawling mosque, which has been at loggerheads with the government for months.
You can license this story through AP Archive:
Find out more about AP Archive:
azan in Laal masjid Islamabad part 1
Tribute to Gazi Rasheed shaheed Lal Masjid Islamabad
غازی رشیر جیسا دلیر آدمی آج تک میں نے نہیں دیکھا جس نے حق کے لیے اپنی اور اپنی عظیم ماں،بھتیجے کی قربانی دی۔ یاد رہے اس واقعہ میں ہزاروں عاالم دین با عمل بچے بچیاں کو مشرف [ملعون] نے فوج کے زریعے شہید کروا دیا گیا تھا۔ انشاءللہ ان حضرات کی قربانی رائیگاں نہیں جائے گی،غازی رشید کا خواب پورا ہو گا پاکستان ایک مکمل اسلامی ریاست بنے گا۔ انشاءللہ
Battle at radical mosque in Pakistani capital leaves nine dead
1. Mid of burning truck outside Environment Ministry
2. Mid of Environment Ministry ablaze
3. Mid of a seminary student manually setting fire to government building
4. Zoom out of burning government building
5. Wide of Lal (Red) Mosque seminaries dodging fire and gas
6. Close of man crying. UPSOUND: (Urdu) God help me.
7. Mid of students
8. Close of man leading chant. UPSOUND: (Urdu) The only power is god.
9. Various of seminaries attacking an abandoned school building now occupied by Pakistani Rangers
10. Zoom in of violence
11. Mid of ambulances
12. Mid injured man in ambulance
13. SOUNDBITE: (Urdu) Shah Abdul Aziz, MNA (member of national assembly) and negotiator
I am hopeful with the help of god� government and Lal Mosque are both worried about this situation and will resolve this issue happily.
14. Man wearing gas mask carrying gun
15. SOUNDBITE: (Urdu) Zamarat Khan, father of female seminary
If my daughter is willing to die, I will also.
16. Zoom out of armed seminary students
STORYLINE:
Security forces clashed with Islamic students outside a radical mosque in the Pakistani capital on Tuesday, triggering gunfire that killed nine people, including four of the militant students, a senior official said.
The students later pelted two government buildings, including the Ministry of Environment, with rocks and set them ablaze, and torched a dozen cars in the ministry's lot.
The battle marked a major escalation in a six-month standoff at the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, whose clerics have challenged the military-led government by mounting a vigilante anti-vice campaign in Islamabad.
Trouble began when student followers of the mosque, including young men with guns and dozens of women wearing black burqas, rushed toward a nearby police checkpoint early Tuesday afternoon.
Police and paramilitary Rangers fired tear gas and, as the students retreated, an Associated Press photographer saw at least four male students, some of them masked, fire shots toward security forces about 200 metres (220 yards) away.
Gunfire was also heard from the police position.
A man used the mosque's loudspeakers to order suicide bombers to get into position.
They have attacked our mosque, the time for sacrifice has come, the man said.
Hours later, dozens of students were patrolling the area around the mosque, and sporadic shots were still heard.
Security forces, some riding in armoured vehicles, cordoned off the area with barbed wire and checkpoints and continued to fire tear gas at the demonstrators from a distance. Shops in the area, about four kilometres (2.5 miles) from the government district, were shuttered.
Shah Abdul Aziz, a lawmaker for a hard-line religious party who rushed to the mosque to mediate, emerged to say that a ceasefire had been agreed - only for the shooting to continue after he left.
Aziz said the mosque's leaders claimed that 10 of their supporters had died, including two female students.
(The) government and Lal Mosque are both worried about this situation and will resolve this issue happily, he said.
Some of the students carried gas masks and several were seen with gasoline-filled bottles and Molotov cocktails. About a dozen were armed with guns, including AK-47 assault rifles.
Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the mosque's deputy leader, said the Rangers sparked the trouble by erecting barricades near the mosque.
When asked about the presence of armed students at his mosque, Ghazi said they are our guards.
S.M. Pasha, a doctor at the Polyclinic Hospital, said three people had died at the hospital, one Islamic student, one laborer and one soldier.
Witnesses said a newspaper reporter and a cameraman were caught in the crossfire and taken to a hospital with bullet wounds.
You can license this story through AP Archive:
Find out more about AP Archive:
Shooting between Islamic students and security forces at radical mosque
1. Wide of religious students outside the Lal Masjid mosque
2. Mid of students, some carrying long sticks
3. Women seminary students of Jamia Hafsa mosque wearing head to toe burqas marching past and chanting, some carrying long sticks
4. Wide of scene as gas canisters explode among the women AUDIO: Gun fire
5. Mid of police vehicle, clouds of tear gas coming into shot and obscure vehicle
6. Women and children running
7. Tracking shot of people at scene of shooting, tear gas seen through trees
STORYLINE:
Shooting broke out at a radical mosque in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad on Tuesday after militant students clashed with security forces deployed to contain their activities.
Doctors said one paramilitary soldier shot in the clash died later in hospital.
Reporters also saw several female students being taken to a hospital, apparently suffering from the effects of tear gas fired by police.
The battle broke out after male and female students from the mosque, some of them armed with guns or wooden poles, rushed toward a police checkpoint near the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in Islamabad.
Police fired tear gas to hold them back and, as the students retreated, an Associated Press photographer saw at least four male students, some of them masked, fire shots toward the checkpoint about 200 metres (yards) away.
Gunfire was also heard from the police position.
A man used the mosque's loudspeakers to order suicide bombers to get into position.
They have attacked our mosque, the time for sacrifice has come, the man said.
An hour later, dozens of students were patrolling the area around the mosque, and sporadic shots were still heard.
There was no sign of police moving in on the mosque.
Authorities have been at loggerheads with the mosque for months over a land dispute and after student followers of its radical clerics began a campaign to impose their version of Islamic law in the capital.
The students have carried out a string of kidnappings of police officers and alleged prostitutes and have threatened suicide attacks if security forces intervene.
Hundreds of police and paramilitary rangers have taken up position near the mosque in recent days.
Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf said last week that he was ready to raid the mosque, but warned that suicide bombers from a militant group linked to al-Qaida had slipped into the building.
You can license this story through AP Archive:
Find out more about AP Archive:
WRAP Talks to end Pakistan mosque siege fail, firing resumes; ADDS AP hospital shots
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Wide of media briefing with negotiators including former PM and leader of Musharraf's ruling party PML(Q), Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Information Minister Mohammed Ali Durrani and Religious Affairs Minister Ejaz ul-Haq
2. SOUNDBITE: (Urdu) Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, former Pakistani prime minister:
I have never been so disappointed in my whole life but today I am going back disappointed. We have tried and offered all options. So far we have done so many things. Whatever we are feeling, later people will point at us. But the only reason why we did this is that we want to get the children and women out of there.
3. Mid of news conference
++NIGHT SHOT++
4. Night sky, audio of explosion
++NIGHT SHOTS++
5. Flash of explosion in sky, audio explosion as army operation against mosque recommences within minutes of announcement of talks failure
6. Journalists call their offices with the news on mobile phones outside media tent
++DAWN++
7. Driving shot following military vehicle at dawn
++DAY SHOTS++
8. Wide of soldier running across street
9. Armoured vehicle firing
10. Wide of soldier running across street
11. Soldiers, one wearing face mask, handling barbed wire
++QUALITY AS INCOMING++
12. Various top shots of soldiers stationed near mosque, AUDIO of gunfire and explosions
13. Mid shot of same, soldier running
14. Black smoke rising from compound, filmed from window, AUDIO: explosion
15. Zoom to smoke column rising over Aabpara market area, AUDIO: gunfire
16. Ambulances driving past with sirens on
17. Armed soldiers walking
18. Ambulance driving past with sirens on
19. Army checkpoint
20. Army officer's convoy passing, AUDIO: gunfire
21. Wide of site AUDIO of gunshots
22. Wide of news conference
23. SOUNDBITE: (Urdu) General Waheed Arshad, Pakistan Army spokesman:
The operation to clear the Lal Masjid and madrassa complex has started. The operation started at 4 am (2300GMT Monday). Security forces entered the complex from four sides. When the army forces entered they encountered stiff resistance from the militants and the security forces had to respond with intense fire which continues from both sides.
24. Wide of journalists leaving
25. Ambulance and army vehicle driving past
26. Army road block
27. Pakistan Army ambulance leaving Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital
28. Army, press and hospital staff outside hospital
29. Various of injured soldier being carried by doctors and surrounded by media
30. Ambulance carrying injured soldier driving off (believed towards nearby Pakistan Military Hospital)
STORYLINE:
Pakistani army troops stormed the compound of Islamabad's Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, on Tuesday, prompting a battle with militants accused of holding about 150 hostages inside, officials said.
At least three soldiers and 40 militants died in the assault, the army said.
Commandos assailed the compound from three directions and quickly cleared the ground floor of the mosque, army spokesman General Waheed Arshad said.
Some 20 children who rushed toward the advancing troops were brought to safety, as militants armed with guns, grenades and gasoline bombs were holed up in the basement of the mosque as well as in an adjoining religious school, Arshad told a news conference.
Security forces entered the complex from four sides, explained Arshad. When the army forces entered they encountered stiff resistance from the militants and the security forces had to respond with intense fire which continues from both sides.
Arshad said three special forces commandos were killed and 15 wounded.
He also said that nearly 40 militants had been killed.
A succession of loud explosions boomed over the city just as the delegates were leaving.
You can license this story through AP Archive:
Find out more about AP Archive:
Islamabad Red Mosque, 2007
At the beginning of July 2007, the Red Mosque situated in the heart of the Capital become the scene of a bloody siege that ended with the deaths of more than hundred people.
Lal Masjid Students Protest | Islamabad
Lal Masjid Students Protest #laalmasjid #lalmasjid #jamiahafsa #islamabad #protest
Islamabad - Pakistan
- At least ten dead, including policemen in a suicide bomb attack at Islamabad's Red Mosque.