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| 100 students of Lal Masjid surrender | | |
ISLAMABAD, JUL 4 At least 100 students of the radical Lal Masjid here surrendered today before a fresh deadline set by the Pakistani government ended even as the two hardline clerics along with several other students remained holed up inside.
The surrender came as President Pervez Musharraf announced a reward of Rs 5,000 for every student who surrenders besides pardoning them and giving travel facilities to all of them.
Pakistani officials said around 100 male and female students of the madrasa have surrendered. Before that six girl students of the seminary came out and were taken away by their parents.
The government was expected to fix a new deadline after a meeting of federal cabinet in view of the "mass desertions".
Some students who spoke to waiting journalists complained that they were being pressurised not to leave by mosque authorities.
The two radical clerics, Abdul Aziz and Abdul Rahid Ghazi, were still defiant inside the mosque along with some hardline students and were resisting efforts to surrender.
Reports also said that the bodies of three students who were killed by army snipers were lying inside the mosque.
The bloody stand off between the mosque students and the security forces surrounding the seminary has till now claimed 21 lives and injured over 150.
Earlier, Information Secretary, Anwar Mehmood had announced that 1130 IST had been fixed as the new deadline for surrender failing which the forces might storm the mosque where two radical clerics and several hundreds of students were holed up since last night.
The clerics had defied 0330 hrs IST deadline to surrender even as they attempted to negotiate through mediators.
The government had announced the new deadline as several students had indicated to their parents over mobile phones that they were willing to surrender.
Army officials permitted parents of six students to go near the besieged madrasa.
The government decided to encourage this as it would reduce casualties if more students specially the girls whose numbers were stated to be in few hundreds in the event of any raid.
Meanwhile, in apparent retaliatory action, four army personnel were killed and two others critically injured in a landmine attack in North Waziristan today.
Pakistan's defence spokesman Maj Gen Waheed Arshad told reporters here that four soldiers were killed and two injured when their vehicle which they were riding ran over an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) while on its way from Mir Ali (North Waziristan) to Bannu.
Arshad said the incident need not necessarily be connected to the crackdown on Lal Masjid clerics and students.
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