Pakistan crackdown on Red Mosque begins

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistani security forces began a massive operation Thursday against radical students holed up in an Islamabad mosque, seeking to end a monthslong standoff that has turned bloody in recent days.

Fighting raged in the darkness and continued early today, with the pops and cracks of small-arms fire echoing through the residential neighborhood. Just after 3 a.m., there was a major explosion, followed by an intense round of shooting that lasted nearly half an hour.

The government had hoped to pressure the students to leave the mosque peacefully, but those negotiations appeared to have broken down.

It was not clear how many people have been killed in the clash, but leaders of the pro-Taliban Red Mosque have said they are prepared to fight to the death.

The government, meanwhile, vowed Thursday to settle for nothing less than surrender.

"We want absolute, total and unconditional surrender," said Tariq Azim Khan, state information minister.

He added, though, that the government believed some in the mosque were being held against their will and that "the parents of students who are still inside requested us to give more time. It will be wrong to go in with full force when women and children are still inside."

Pakistani officials have repeatedly said they wanted to give students, especially the many girls believed to be in the compound, enough time to leave before beginning an all-out assault.

But it appeared early today that time was running out.

Mosque leaders have tried in recent months to impose a rigid interpretation of Islamic law on Islamabad, a cosmopolitan capital, part of their efforts to turn Pakistan into a theocratic state.