ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Security forces besieging a radical mosque in the Pakistani capital captured its top cleric Wednesday as he tried to sneak out of the complex in a woman's burqa, and more than 1,000 of his followers surrendered.
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf deployed the army to subdue the remaining militants holed up in Islamabad's Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, whose clerics have defied the government for months with a drive to impose a Taliban-style version of Islamic law in the city.
The tensions had exploded into a daylong battle Tuesday between security forces and students — some of whom were heavily armed and masked. Sixteen people were killed, officials said.
The government ordered the militants to lay down their arms and surrender by Wednesday morning, as it positioned armored vehicles and helicopters around the mosque in a show of strength.
A security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said authorities captured the mosque's top cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, after a female police officer tried to search his body, which was concealed by a full-length black burqa.
The officer began shouting "This is not a woman," the official said, prompting male officers to seize him. "The suspect later turned out to be the mosque's chief cleric," the official said.
An AP Television News cameraman saw plainclothes police bundling the gray-bearded cleric into the back of a car, which sped away.
"They have no options but to surrender," said Javed Iqbal Cheema, a government spokesman. "The government is not into dialogue with these clerics."
he mosque's deputy leader, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, said earlier in the day that he was prepared to talk with the government, but added, "We will continue to defend ourselves."
As evening fell, sporadic gunfire erupted around the mosque and at an adjacent women's seminary while three helicopter gunships circled overhead. Scores of police and soldiers, some armed with sniper rifles, watched as students filed out of the compound. A number of the women were in tears.
The city's deputy administrator, Chaudhry Mohammed Ali, said more than 1,000 had surrendered. All women and children will be granted amnesty, but males involved in killings and other crimes as well as top mosque leaders will face legal action, said Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim.
Minister of Information Mohammed Ali Durrani said there could be "a few hundred" or more people remaining inside the mosque complex. It was unclear how many were hardened militants.
One who decided to give up, 15-year-old Maryam Qayyeum, said those who stayed in the seminary "only want martyrdom."
"They are happy," she said. "They don't want to go home."
Qayyeum said mosque leaders were not trying to stop students from giving up. But her mother, who had come to take her home said, "They are making speeches. They want to incite them."
Johar Ali, 20, who had come to the mosque to support the militants several days ago, said there were still hundreds inside. But Ali did not report seeing any suicide bombers, who the mosque leaders claimed were ready to launch attacks.
The violence started Tuesday when male and female student followers of the mosque — some of them masked and armed — rushed toward a police checkpoint. Gunfire broke out among the students and security forces, sparking a daylong series of clashes.
A senior government spokesman, Anwar Mahmood, said 16 people were killed Tuesday, though he declined to give a breakdown of the victims. Earlier, the government said they had included militants, innocent bystanders, a journalist and members of the security forces.
Ghazi told The Associated Press that 20 of his students had been killed by security forces, including two young men climbing to the top of the mosque for morning prayers Wednesday.
A young woman was also shot and wounded on the roof of the women's seminary, he said. "She was shot by sniper fire. They are shooting directly at us," he said in a telephone interview.
After a meeting of top officials that included Musharraf, Deputy Interior Minister Zafar Warriach said the government imposed an immediate curfew on the area. He said authorities had run out of patience after a six-month standoff with the hard-line clerics at the mosque.
"The government has decided that those people from the madrassa who are defaming Pakistan and Islam will face an operation," Warriach said.
In the past six months, the clerics have challenged the government by sending students from the mosque to kidnap alleged prostitutes and police in an anti-vice campaign.
The bloodshed has added to a sense of crisis in Pakistan, where Musharraf — a major ally of President Bush — already faces emboldened militants near the Afghan border and a pro-democracy movement triggered by his botched attempt to fire the country's chief justice.
The mosque siege sparked street protests Tuesday in the cities of Lahore and Quetta organized by radical religious parties.
On Wednesday, officials said a suicide car bomber rammed a vehicle into a Pakistan army convoy near the Afghan border, killing five soldiers and five civilians. In northwestern Pakistan, unidentified assailants fired a rocket at a police station, killing one officer and wounding four, and an explosive killed four people and injured two district officials.
It was not known if the incidents were linked to the mosque crisis.
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