The televised address came amid fears of a possible extremist backlash following the raid on the mosque this week that killed 11 soldiers and 75 people inside the complex, mainly militants.

"Extremism and terrorism have not yet been eliminated, and we are determined to root them out from every corner of the country," said General Musharraf, wearing a dark suit and tie instead of his army uniform.

"I am sad over the loss of lives in the operation but it became inevitable for Pakistan," Musharraf said, adding that the mosque and its adjoining girls' Islamic school had been "freed from the hands of terrorists."

He also appealed to the country's thousands of Islamic schools or madrassas, which have been accused of links to international attacks, to "teach the true values of Islam and in their (students') minds take away extremism."

Musharraf -- under international pressure to dislodge Al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels from Pakistan's lawless north-western tribal areas -- said he would strengthen the police and paramilitary forces there over the next six months.

The body that runs most of Pakistan's madrassas, the Wafaqul Madaris, said Musharraf had tried to "misinform" the country. "Musharraf should not worry as we never teach hatred," its chief Hanif Jalandhri told AFP.

Earlier, in the first media visit to the battle-scared Red Mosque complex, army officials displayed a huge arsenal of the radicals' weapons, including suicide vests, grenade launchers and explosives found amid the carnage.

Army spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told reporters at the scene that 75 bodies had been recovered from the mosque and said "19 are beyond recognition and they could be anybody, any gender, any age."

The attack -- which ended a months-long standoff with the mosque's followers who wanted the imposition of sharia law -- sparked calls for revenge from radical groups inside and outside the world's second-largest Muslim country.

Al-Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri in an online message urged Pakistani Muslims to embrace jihad and revolt against the government.

In neighbouring Afghanistan, veteran Islamist warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar charged that Musharraf had "attacked the mosque to please (US President George W.) Bush," according to his spokesman Haroon Zarghon.

Thousands of angry mourners, meanwhile, turned the funerals of dead militants into religious protests.

Around 2,000 people chanting "Allahu Akbar!" (God is greater) massed for the burial of cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi, 43, the leader of the Red Mosque rebels, who was cut down in the crossfire as he made his last stand.

"I lost my brother, my students, for the enforcement of Islamic sharia (law)," Abdul Aziz, Ghazi's elder brother and the mosque's chief cleric, told a prayer meeting, before police took him away again.

In apparent revenge attacks, a suicide bomber killed three people in the troubled tribal area of North Waziristan, while five died in a roadside blast in north-western Swat district, which has close links to the mosque.

In the north-western mountain town of Allai, mobs protesting the mosque raid set fire to five offices belonging to the United Nations and other aid agencies, local mayor Ehsanullah told AFP, adding that 10 people were detained. No one was injured.

Some 6,000 tribesmen in the restive Bajaur area bordering Afghanistan vowed to fight jihad as three students from the schools attached to the Red Mosque were buried.

Most of the other bodies, around 70, were buried in unmarked graves by officials Thursday, as some people still anxiously awaited news of their relatives.

Ghazi and students at the mosque, which housed a female madrassa, had been involved in an aggressive Taliban-style campaign for Islamic law in the capital, including the kidnapping of seven Chinese accused of prostitution.

Officials have said that militants with links to Al-Qaeda and Afghanistan's Taliban movement were holed up in the compound. Ministers have said some Uzbek militants were among several foreigners inside.