By IANS
Islamabad : The chief cleric and deputy cleric of Lal Masjid – where at least 21 people have been killed and over 200 injured in clashes with security forces – have moved to a "secure location" Wednesday morning, Online news agency of Pakistan has reported.
Several women and children also left the complex, while relatives were allowed to collect some female students despite a curfew, according to the report.
Online also reported that the Pakistan army was on standby while the police and the paramilitary force Pakistan Rangers carried out the operations against militants, according to Maj Gen Arshad Waheed, director general inter service public relations.
Talking to a private TV news channel, Waheed said Wednesday that the interior ministry was in charge of the operation.
"Our role is supporting and the army troops are being kept on standby and whenever the civil administration needs us our troops would help them out."
Online quoted TV channels to report that nearly 500 female and male students had surrendered and handed their weapons over to the authorities by early afternoon. The authorities had given a deadline of 11 a.m. local time (6 a.m. GMT) for the students to surrender.
The chief cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz and deputy cleric Maulana Abdul ur Rasheed Ghazi held a meeting with ulemas (Islamic scholars) before they left, according to the news agency.
Earlier, talking to a private television channel, deputy cleric Ghazi said they could make a "conditional withdrawal" in front of the ulemas. Ghazi said he was ready for negotiations with the government, but he would not abandon his demands.
The chief cleric said the Lal Masjid management was prepared to hold talks, but only after "cessation of firing and withdrawal of Rangers from their positions at Lal Masjid area", the news agency reported.
Aziz reportedly said he would be "forced to backtrack" if he was asked to give up his demand for enforcement of strict Islamic law in the country.
Maj Gen Arshad Waheed said the Pakistan army had been put on standby because the interior ministry had sought its help.
"Whenever the army is called for an operation, it comes fully prepared to face any emergency situation," he added.
Reacting to some media reports, Waheed said that no tanks were called out in the federal capital. "They are armoured vehicles".
President Pervez Musharraf had announced general amnesty and also Pakistani Rs.5,000 "prize money" to those who surrendered.
The authorities had adopted a strategy to observe "utmost restraint to avoid bloodshed", law enforcement officials told Online.
The Pakistan government had decided to launch an operation overnight and imposed curfew all around the Lal Masjid complex following Tuesday's clashes between religious students and security forces, Xinhua added.
Hundreds of military and paramilitary troops were ready to storm the mosque. The area was completely cordoned off and all the roads leading to Islamabad were also sealed.
Shoot orders were issued for those who came out armed from the mosque.
A high-level meeting chaired by Musharraf Wednesday morning discussed the operation against the Lal Masjid management and reviewed public reaction in connection with the operation.
After anti-government demonstrations in Karachi and parts of Islamabad Tuesday, there had been similar demonstrations in Mansehra in North West Frontier Province Wednesday.
The extremist administration of the mosque has been in a standoff with the authorities for the last five months over its attempts to impose a strict Taliban-style Islamic Sharia way of life on the citizens of the Pakistani capital.