Troops Bombard Militant Students Holed Up in Mosque As Siege Reaches Climax

Pakistani troops fired shells and tear gas on a radical mosque in central Islamabad early this morning, hours after the pro-Taliban chief cleric was caught trying to escape under a burka.

A barrage of explosions rocked the city just before dawn as the two-day siege of Lal Masjid, or the Red Mosque, moved towards a climax. Soldiers on loudhailers called on heavily armed militant students holed up inside to lay down their weapons or "face the consequences".

Trucks carrying troops rushed through the deserted streets and terrified residents of the upmarket neighborhood were warned to stay inside.

Several thousand people, including hundreds of radicalized women, are believed to be inside Lal Masjid, which has been subjected to an ever tightening government siege since Tuesday, when 16 people were killed and 150 wounded in a five-hour gun battle.

Some of the students have vowed to become "martyrs" for their Islamist cause, and the mosque authorities have boasted of having a brigade of suicide bombers. But hundreds abandoned the mosque yesterday, lured by government promises of safe passage and 5,000 rupees (£41).

Yesterday evening the firebrand chief cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, was arrested as he tried to slip through an army cordon disguised under a burka.

A policewoman discovered the preacher among a group of women leaving the mosque. Local television showed him being bundled into a police car, his bearded face uncovered over a flowing dark cloak. His wife, who heads the mosque's female students, was also arrested.

Estimates of the numbers inside the mosque ranged from hundreds to as many as 3,000. The government claimed that 1,200 had surrendered by this morning. The remainder were under the control of Abdul Aziz's brother, Abdul Rashid Ghazi. Before the shooting started this morning he said he was prepared to negotiate, but earlier talks with the government had "gone nowhere", he said.

Abdul Aziz, a preacher famed for his fiery sermons, emerged as the spiritual leader of the movement, while his brother Ghazi became its spokesman. The brothers are openly sympathetic to al-Qaida and boast of having met Osama bin Laden. Their vigilante campaign - which has involved abducting suspected prostitutes and burning Hollywood movies - embarrassed President Pervez Musharraf. But he did not act, saying that a violent showdown could spark countrywide violence. The final straw may have been the abduction of seven Chinese workers of a massage parlor last week. They were released within hours but Beijing - a key ally of Pakistan - demanded greater security.

"They have no options but to surrender," said Javed Iqbal Cheema, a government spokesman. "The government is not into dialog with these clerics."