By IANS
Islamabad : The toll in Tuesday's clashes between students and militants in the capital's Lal Masjid and the para-military Rangers climbed to 12 people killed and over 150 injured, as government tightened security and opposition leaders offered to broker peace.
Unconfirmed reports said the toll could be 16, Daily Times said Wednesday.
The government said it wanted talks. "Despite unprovoked firing by the students of Lal Masjid, the government still wants to settle the issue through dialogue," Federal State Interior Minister Zafar Warraich told PTV Tuesday night.
Three journalists, including two foreigners, were conducting interviews in the Jamia Hafsa madrassa for girls in the mosque's compound when the shooting started, and were believed to be still inside.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has called a meeting of the federal cabinet on Wednesday morning to discuss the Lal Masjid crisis.
There are some 5,000 students at the madrassas – Jamia Hafsa for girls and Jamia Fareedia for boys – affiliated to the Lal Masjid, most of them from poorer parts of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
Among the confirmed dead were journalist Javed Khan, Ranger Mubarik Hussain, students Muhammad Rafi, Muhammad Ijaz, labourer Umraiz Ahmed, businessman Ghulam Hussain, and an unidentified Uzbek national, who might have been a militant.
President Pervez Musharraf had last week said that the mosque's clergy and the students were armed and were mixed up with militants, including foreigners, belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammed and linked to Al Qaida.
Maulana Fazlur Rahman, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, said he had talked to Lal Masjid's chief, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, telling him that he would "cooperate only if the cleric was ready to cooperate". The latter had agreed to talk.
A five-member committee including Maulana Zahoor Alvi, Maulana Nazir Farooqi, Maulana Saeedur Rehman, Senator Telha Mehmood and Qazi Rasheed started negotiations with the Lal Masjid clerics to resolve the crisis late Tuesday night.
However, Ghazi declared jihad and said the firing by the police had been unprovoked, and despite an understanding reached earlier.
Media reports Wednesday quoted police to say that the shootout began at around 11 a.m. Tuesday after seminary students marched towards the nearby Environment Ministry building and a security picket outside it.
The students – the women wearing veils and the men with cloth masks covering their faces – snatched weapons from police and took four officials hostage. The ministry building was later set ablaze, and so was a girls' school nearby.
Meanwhile, US-based think tank Strategic foresight (Stratfor) said Lal Masjid administrators took advantage of the government's fear and initiated the clash Tuesday, hoping to catch the government by surprise and stave off a full-scale operation.