Security forces dynamite besieged Lal Masjid wall

Security forces dynamite besieged Lal Masjid wall

Security forces besieging Lal Masjid in the capital blew up sections of the wall of the compound, a security official said early on Sunday.

There were also intense exchanges of gunfire between security forces and militants holed up inside the fortified Lal Masjid, the official said.

"Security forces dynamited the wall to allow people inside to come out if they want to," he told AFP.

People inside the compound who wished to leave risked being shot by hard-line students if they attempted to climb the wall, which is seven to eight feet (2.1 to 2.4 metres) high, he said.

Breaching the wall also gave security forces a clearer picture of what was happening, he said.

A 13-year-old boy escaped on Saturday morning through a similar hole in the wall.

Security forces blew up another section of the wall early on Sunday with the deafening blasts heard several miles (kilometres) away.

"There has been another round of intense firing but there have been no casualties on the security forces' side," the official said.

"We have shown maximum restraint in order to save innocent lives of women and children, who were made hostage by the militants," Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani told AFP.

Pakistani forces have held back from raiding the now bullet-pocked mosque but there have been intense clashes during the day.

An AFP photographer at the scene said heavy firing between the security forces and the militants continued for more than 45 minutes late Saturday with several bullets hitting the walls of several houses.

A man with a bullet wound was brought to a hospital from a residential area near the embattled mosque.

Relatives said he was hit while having dinner in his house in a curfew-bound area.

President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday told the besieged militants to surrender or face the risk of being killed.