Lal Masjid head Abdul Rashid Ghazi agreed to surrender but wanted special conditions for foreign militants – said he will call back – the call never came
Chetan Chauhan
Jul. 10, 2007

It is dead bodies all over Lal Masjid. The Pakistani forces in the basement surround Lal Masjid head Abdul Rashid Ghazi who is still not agreeing to surrender.

After an 11 hour-long talk on Monday night, the 13-member committee headed by former premier Shujaat Hussain reached an agreement on the terms and conditions for Ghazi and his associates to give up their arms and come out of the besieged complex, Religious Affairs Minister Ijazul Haq said.

As per the "agreement", Ghazi and his family had agreed to be put up in a rest house under "house arrest" and face legal proceedings in the cases related to him.

The negotiations were conducted through a cellular phone given to Ghazi by the negotiators as both sides preferred not to meet directly due to security reasons.

The radical cleric had also agreed to face legal proceedings as the Supreme Court on Monday took suo moto notice of the incident and ordered that any surrender be done before the session’s judge of Islamabad, said Haq.

An understanding had been reached with Ghazi that all militants, who were with him would be screened and released if security forces did not want them.

For this, ten buses were ordered and a place had been prepared for their stay, Haq, said. However, after reaching an understanding on all issues, Ghazi sought to know the fate of foreign ultras. He was then told that they would have to face legal proceedings and no free passage would be given to them.

When the government insisted that foreign militants should surrender, Ghazi said he would call back but the call never came and he switched off the phone.

This prompted Hussain to declare failure of the talks and led the government to storm the complex to save women and children holed up there, the Minister said.

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