Musharraf for talks with holed up militants in Lal Masjid

ISLAMABAD: In a last ditch attempt to bring a peaceful end to the Lal Masjid standoff, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Monday sent a government delegation led by a former premier to the besieged mosque for negotiations with the holed up cleric amid an offer to keep him under house arrest.

The delegation, headed by former Premier Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and including several religious scholars, reached the mosque hours after Musharraf took the decision at a high-level meeting on ways to resolve the week-long crisis.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the government would allow Ghazi to be held under house arrest with his ailing mother if he surrenders and frees women and children inside the Red Mosque.

Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said the delegation would address the mosque leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi using loudspeakers because it was too dangerous to go inside the mosque. Ghazi is holed up in the mosque with scores of armed militants and radical students. Several women and children are still trapped in the mosque.

Aziz said there were several 'heavyweight militants' and wanted terrorists inside the mosque.

The government's move to give peace a chance came a day after Musharraf warned the holed up militants to surrender or get killed.

Hussain and his six-member negotiating team headed by former premier will try to persuade Ghazi to give himself up and to free women and children inside the complex, Aziz said. Twenty-four people have lost their lives in the tense standoff.

"The team will negotiate through a speaker system so that all team members can hear whatever Ghazi says," Aziz said at his official residence in Islamabad.

"We are not sending any negotiating team inside the mosque as they are unpredictable people and have also taken six parents as hostage," Aziz added.

"We are trying to avoid loss of life and using all negotiating options to end this crisis, including house arrest for Ghazi and his old mother," Aziz said.

The move to hold negotiations at the meeting presided by Musharraf came as security forces again fired tear gas and exchanged gunfire with the rebels at the mosque.

"The meeting authorised Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to make a real last-ditch effort to convince the militants holding women and children to release them," according to a senior government official.

Musharraf said the priority was still to save the so-called human shields, the official said.

"They must be released by the hostage-takers," he quoted the president as saying.

The new strategy to go for negotiations came after Pakistan security forces reportedly deferred plans to storm the Lal Masjid after getting fresh information of the situation inside the besieged mosque by an unmanned aerial vehicle.

Military officials, who were last night given an all clear signal from President Pervez Musharraf to raid the complex, altered their strategy in light of the new information.

The UAV hovered over the Lal Masjid, where militants are holed up, for more than two hours last night and took pictures of the besieged mosque. The plane recorded the images of people present at Lal Masjid and the girls madrassa, Jamia Hafsa and their movements.

In light of the information provided by the images, a new strategy against Lal Masjid has been adopted, Geo TV reported.

The possible operation, which was to be carried out on Monday against Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa, has been postponed.

After a meeting with top military officials last night, Musharraf had given a clearance to storm the sprawling mosque and there was speculation that the operation will take place in the early hours.

However, except for sporadic firing, the situation remained the same.

During last night's meeting, Musharraf was presented with three options - launch an air strike, gas the compound to render the inmates unconscious or launch ground assault.

There was no word yet on which option was cleared and when the operation would be launched.