glockmail
07-06-2007, 07:08 AM
Friday, July 6, 2007
Months-long standoff in Islamabad appears to be coming to an end
THE WASHINGTON POST
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan
Pakistani security forces moved against radical students holed up in an Islamabad mosque yesterday, in an effort to end a months-long standoff that has turned bloody in recent days.
Fighting raged in the darkness and continued early today, with the pops and cracks of small-arms fire echoing through a residential area. Just after 3 a.m., there was a major explosion, followed by an intense round of shooting that lasted nearly 30 minutes.
The government had earlier said that it hoped to pressure the students to leave the mosque peacefully, but those negotiations appeared to have broken down.
It was not immediately clear how many people have been killed in the clash, but leaders of the pro-Taliban Red Mosque have said they are prepared to fight to the death.
The government vowed yesterday to settle for nothing less than surrender.
“We want absolute, total and unconditional surrender,” Tariq Azim Khan, the state information minister, told reporters.
Go Pakis! :popcorn:
Months-long standoff in Islamabad appears to be coming to an end
THE WASHINGTON POST
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan
Pakistani security forces moved against radical students holed up in an Islamabad mosque yesterday, in an effort to end a months-long standoff that has turned bloody in recent days.
Fighting raged in the darkness and continued early today, with the pops and cracks of small-arms fire echoing through a residential area. Just after 3 a.m., there was a major explosion, followed by an intense round of shooting that lasted nearly 30 minutes.
The government had earlier said that it hoped to pressure the students to leave the mosque peacefully, but those negotiations appeared to have broken down.
It was not immediately clear how many people have been killed in the clash, but leaders of the pro-Taliban Red Mosque have said they are prepared to fight to the death.
The government vowed yesterday to settle for nothing less than surrender.
“We want absolute, total and unconditional surrender,” Tariq Azim Khan, the state information minister, told reporters.
Go Pakis! :popcorn: