By IANS
Islamabad : A Pakistani trooper and two students were killed and scores injured in clashes between security forces and radical students at the Lal Masjid in the heart of Pakistan's capital Tuesday afternoon.
The chief cleric of the mosque Maulana Abdul Aziz called for a jihad against the government. Clerics at the mosque have been campaigning for observance of stricter Islamic laws in the capital.
The clashes reportedly started when a large group of women students from Jamia Hafsa – a madrassa attached to the mosque – marched out of the mosque complex and confronted the security forces barricading them in. The women, who have been ensconced in the library complex of their seminary for the last six months, were chanting slogans in support of jihad, eyewitnesses said.
Around 1,500 troopers and other security personnel had surrounded the mosque complex by morning. Officials said many of the women were armed.
Reports say police fired teargas shells and that students fired gunshots from in and around the mosque complex. It is not clear who fired first.
Some eyewitnesses said that around 50 students were injured by teargas shells. Eight of the women students involved in the clashes were carried to the hospital, other eyewitnesses said.
Colonel Mashallah of the paramilitary forces confirmed the death of one trooper from the Pakistan Rangers and injury to two others. There were unconfirmed reports that the men had suffered gunshot wounds.
All hospitals in the capital were put on maximum alert. Shops around the complex were closed down quickly after news of the clash spread. There was considerable tension all over the capital as other students sympathetic to those inside Lal Masjid took out processions and surrounded neighbourhoods where many bureaucrats and politicians live.
There were huge traffic jams as people tried to flee the area where the clashes were taking place. In the afternoon, police blocked access to all roads leading to the complex.
Federal Minister of Interior Aftab Sherpao has demanded that the mosque administration hand over the persons involved in the firing at the security forces. He said the government did not want bloodshed but would not tolerate "such incidents of lawlessness".
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had said last week that members of the terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed, which has links with the Al Qaeda, were ensconced in the mosque complex and that they were armed with explosives.
At that time, Musharraf had said he was not moving against the militants and radical clerics because he wanted "to avoid bloodshed of the innocents". But his hands appeared to have been forced Tuesday when the women confronted security forces.
Musharraf had held a meeting Monday with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, other ministers and officials to review the situation in the country.