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Pakistan military personnel surrounding the Lal Masjid here arrested Maulana Abdul Aziz, one of the two radical clerics of the mosque.
Updated : Nov 19, 2013, 11:17 PM IST
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan extended a deadline at Islamabad’s Lal Masjid after at least 16 people were killed in gun battles between police and students supporting the chief cleric’s call for Islamic law to be imposed in the city.
Police charged chief cleric Maulana Mohammad Abdul Aziz and his deputy Abdul Rashid Ghazi with murder and terrorism, police spokesman Muhammad Amaar said by telephone.
The government sources say that Maulana Abdul Aziz was arrested after being detected during a body search in the special centre set up to register those surrendering before the government.
Among a hoard of sixty female students who were lined up ready to take leave, Maulana Abdul Aziz was the only burqa- clad male who was identified by the lady police, much to the surprise of the students themselves.
His wife, Umme Hassam, who runs the Jamia Hafsa was also arrested during a scuffle with the lady police while trying to resist the arrest of her husband. Interestingly, a few hours before the arrest the cleric brothers as well as their female family members were all giving sermons to the students of the Jamia not to surrender even if they had to sacrifice their lives in the pathway leading to martyrdom.
For the last couple of days, the fanatic clerics had put the students of the Jamia under duress and had not been allowing them to see their family members.
The government circles say that the deadline to surrender is being extended again and again in a bid to minimise possible casualties during a military operation.
Even otherwise, in the absence of water and electricity inside the Lal Masjid and the Jamia Hafsa, it was becoming impossible for the students to stay there any further. As things stand, the Pakistani security forces are surrounding
the two buildings in the heart of Islamabad amidst shoot-on-sight curfew in the area.
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