Most of Red Mosque deaths said to be militants

1,300 said to have fled
The government says 1,300 people, including men, women and children, escaped or otherwise left the compound after the army siege began. It followed six months of mounting tension amid a vigilante campaign by the mosque’s leaders to kidnap policemen and alleged prostitutes in a bid to impose Taliban-style morality on the capital.

Lying in his hospital bed at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Bakhat Fazil recounted how he was hit by bullets in the shoulder and leg when he rushed to the mosque to rescue his three daughters trapped inside.

He later learned his daughters, all under age 10, had been freed and were safe.

Fazil said he sent his daughters to study, not to become militants, and that they were prevented from leaving the seminary by extremists.

“I know many parents begged for the release of their children,” said the 38-year-old taxi driver. “I curse those who didn’t free innocent women and children, and who held them against their will.”

Placing Musharraf against the public
The casualties at the Red Mosque could further turn public opinion against Musharraf, who already faces a backlash for his attempt to fire the country’s chief justice. But the battle also has pushed the controversy over the judge out of the spotlight, and some Pakistanis were angered that the militants turned a holy site into an armed camp.

Al-Zawahri’s video was devoted solely to attacking Musharraf over the mosque siege.

“Rigged elections will not save you, politics will not save you, and bargaining, bootlicking negotiations with the criminals and political maneuvers will not save you,” a bespectacled and white-clad al-Zawahri said in the video, which was subtitled in English.

“Musharraf and his hunting dogs have rubbed your honor in the dirt in the service of the Crusaders and the Jews,” he told Pakistanis.

The video was released by al-Qaida’s multimedia branch, as-Sahab. Its authenticity could not immediately be confirmed, but two U.S.-based terrorism monitoring groups also reported it.

About 500 people chanting “Death to Musharraf!” rallied for an hour Wednesday in the northwest Pakistani frontier city of Peshawar.

“This (mosque attack) is part of our government’s action against religious elements to please America,” said Shabbir Khan, a lawmaker from an opposition Islamic party, at the demonstration.

About 15 other Islamic opposition lawmakers gathered in front of the Supreme Court in Islamabad, blaming Musharraf for Pakistan’s troubles, including the mosque attack, and calling for his resignation.

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