PAKISTAN:As smoke poured from the roof of his Islamabad mosque, a radical Pakistani cleric offered to surrender last night to try to end an intense three-day siege by government security forces.
Speaking live on television, Abdul Rashid Ghazi said his student followers would lay down their weapons and leave the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, if conditions were met, including safe passage for his elderly mother.
The government responded brusquely, with interior minister Aftab Khan Sherpao saying "the time for negotiation is over". However, his spokesman added that the army would allow an orderly unconditional surrender, starting with several hundred women and children believed to be inside the mosque.
Mr Ghazi's offer seemed to end the confrontation that began on Tuesday when the tense relationship between his mosque and the government exploded into a street battle that left at least 16 dead and 150 injured.
The government responded by sealing off the area and sending in the army, which has ratcheted up pressure on the armed militants inside, some reportedly committed to martyring themselves in suicide attacks.
Fearful of triggering a bloodbath, the government has tried to wear down the students with a mix of bribes, threats and brute military force.
On Wednesday, 1,200 students abandoned Lal Masjid, taking up a government offer of amnesty and a 5,000 rupee (€60) payment.
Yesterday, the army tightened the siege with tactics to flush out the hardcore fighters - gunfire, explosions and overhead passes by helicopter gunships. By late afternoon, a senior officer estimated 400 people remained inside the mosque, 100 of them armed. Other estimates ran as high as 2,000.
"They are cowards, holding children as human shields," said Tasneem Aslam, a foreign office spokeswoman. "That is the only reason we have not taken all-out action."
As dusk fell, black smoke poured from the mosque after the army blew two large holes in the perimeter walls. An hour later, Mr Ghazi phoned a television station, making his offer of surrender in a shaking voice.
His brother, Abdul Aziz, a firebrand preacher who was the mosque's spiritual leader, had been arrested the night before, captured as he tried to flee the mosque under a burka.
Mr Aziz gave an extraordinary interview to state television yesterday morning that started with the burka-clad figure lifting his black veil to reveal the bushy-bearded cleric. Smiling frequently, he predicted the mosque students would not be able to hold out for long.
Lal Masjid, Islamabad's oldest mosque, attracted up to 5,000 students to its boys and girls schools offering free education and strict moral teachings. Its students shot to prominence in January when they launched a vigilante anti-vice campaign.
The showdown has added to the crisis in Pakistan, where President General Pervez Musharraf has faced a succession of emergencies. A clumsy attempt to fire the country's chief justice triggered a pro-democracy movement, while the Taliban is increasingly bold along the Afghan border.