By DPA
Islamabad : Dozens of bodies of alleged militants were buried without the presence of relatives in Islamabad Thursday amid claims that hundreds of people died when troops stormed the radical Lal Masjid and seminary complex.
Local television channels showed workmen digging graves at a cemetery at the edge of the city where trucks brought the remains, many of which were said to be decomposing and scarred beyond recognition.
An eyewitness, who said he had visited the complex Wednesday, told Pakistan's Dawn newspaper that the site was littered with bodies wrapped in white shrouds.
"I could not count them but they must have been in the hundreds," he said, adding that the structure of the Jamia Hafsa seminary was badly damaged.
The military said earlier that 73 bodies were found during a continuing search of the labyrinthine mosque complex following 36 hours of fighting. No women and children were among the victims, an army spokesman said.
Journalists were still barred from the site at the centre of the Pakistan capital, fuelling suspicions of a far higher death toll. Many people were still unable to find missing relatives.
Restrictions on media entering hospitals in Islamabad and its twin city Rawalpindi also remained in place.
Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf ordered the storming operation early Tuesday against mosque clerics and their armed supporters after almost six months of confrontation.
Ten troops were also confirmed killed in the fighting, including a colonel who was shot while preparing to demolish the mosque walls prior to the assault.
The body of the deputy chief cleric of the complex, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, was among those removed and was being transported to his home village in the central Punjab province for burial.
His brother, chief cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz, was arrested trying to escape from the complex last week.
The standoff began in January when hundreds of stick-wielding female students of the seminary occupied a children's library in Islamabad to protest the demolition of mosques in the capital.
Emboldened by the inaction of authorities, more students who were demanding the enforcement of Sharia law in Pakistan began an anti-vice campaign in the capital, detaining alleged prostitutes, harassing storeowners and kidnapping policemen.