By DPA
Islamabad : Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf Monday set up a committee to negotiate with Islamic militants at a besieged Islamabad mosque, as the country's top court intervened in the conflict, saying it wanted to save the women and children inside.
The committee was established at a high level meeting, which was also attended by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, Chaudhry Hussain, among others.
"Every effort should be made to ensure the release of those held up by the militants inside the mosque, without bloodshed," Aaj news channel quoted Musharraf as directing the committee members.
Musharraf also allowed a seven-member panel of religious scholars and Shujaat to mediate between the government and the militants.
The group was to contact the leader of the militants Abdul Rashid Ghazi with several proposals, including an offer of protective custody for him at a rest house instead of a prison in return for his surrender.
Analysts believe the new strategy is being devised as the possibility of high casualties during the storming of the mosque could deprive the government of the public support it has won in the standoff so far.
Musharraf summoned the meeting after a delegation of the Wafaq-ul-Madaras – an organisation overseeing thousands of Islamic seminaries in the country – pleaded with him to show flexibility.
The body of religious scholars, who had already condemned the activities of the Lal Masjid militants, also warned the government that the siege could lead to civil war.
"The overnight bombardment by the security forces was sheer brutality," a spokesman for the organisation, Mufti Rafi Usmani, told a news channel after the meeting.
The initiative followed the overnight tense situation when the security forces gave a last warning to the militants to surrender and used a US-gifted surveillance drone, raising fears of a full-fledged operation against the mosque.
The security operation was launched after extremist students attacked a police check post last Tuesday, in their five-month long standoff with the authorities over imposition of strict Islamic laws in the country.
Meanwhile, Acting Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Rana Bhagwandas named a two-judge panel to probe the security forces' assault on the mosque and its outcome.
A possible court intervention to overrule executive power, unique to the Pakistani judicial system, arose amid a public outpouring of concern for those inside the compound.
Justice Mohammed Nawaz Abbasi, who was also appointed along with Justice Faqir Mohammed Khokhar, said the miseries inflicted on the residents near the mosque for the last seven days, mainly due to a curfew, were in violation of the constitution.
He said the highest court was concerned about saving the lives of hundreds inside the mosque who may be held as human shields by the hardcore militants.
Extra-judicial killings of this nature cannot be tolerated, he said as he summoned the top officials of the civil administration and security forces for an explanation in court.
The government has repeatedly said the militants, having links with the Taliban and Al Qaeda, are using hundreds of women and children as human shields.
Around 20,000 of their supporters, many of them armed with rocket launchers and automatic weapons, in the country's tribal area of Bajaur bordering Afghanistan held a protest rally against the siege of the Lal Masjid.
Several leaders of local Taliban militia also joined the rally, where the speakers warned they would declare Jihad against the government if the security operation against the mosque was not terminated.
The demonstrators set alight effigies of President Musharraf, and chanted slogans against the US and NATO-led forces in Afghanistan.
Unknown militants fired four rockets at security forces last night in the same area, in a series of attacks unleashed in the aftermath of the siege.
Suspected supporters of the Lal Masjid militants, in an overnight action, gunned down three Chinese nationals in the capital city of the North West Frontier Province, Peshawar.
China's ambassador to Pakistan Luo Zhaohui, condemned the attack and urged Pakistani government to quickly "investigate it, round up the culprits, properly handle the follow-up issues and take effective measures to protect all Chinese in Pakistan."
Pakistan in return promised to provide adequate security for Chinese citizens.