Hundreds at Pakistani Mosque Surrender

Troops seal off area around radical outpost
Posted Jul 4, 2007 3:07 PM CDT
Hundreds at Pakistani Mosque Surrender
Pakistani religious female students carry an injured girl to ambulance after a clash with police outside the Red Mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, July 3, 2007. Shooting broke out at the radical mosque after students clashed with police deployed there. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)   (Associated Press)

About 700 students have agreed to leave Islamabad's Red Mosque under pressure from Pakistani police surrounding the compound, the BBC reports. Several thousand people, including students as young as 10, remain inside the radical mosque after a clash between security forces and dissidents yesterday killed 10 and wounded 140.

Tensions between the Red Mosque, or Lal Masjid, and the government have simmered for months. The police demand that all militants surrender their weapons immediately, but they have offered full clemency to women and children who leave. Lal Masjid's lead cleric, meanwhile, tried to escape tonight disguised in a burqa among fleeing women, but police took him into custody.

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