Pakistan in a showdown

Musharraf and his army against the Taliban and al-Qaeda and the Islamic militiants in his own country. Focused on the Red Mosque:

Soldiers backed by armored vehicles and helicopters surrounded the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, before dawn Wednesday, a day after the start of clashes between security forces and radical followers of the mosque that have killed at least 19 people.

The violence brought to a head a six-month standoff between Pakistan's U.S.-backed government and its top cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, who challenged Musharraf with a drive to impose Taliban-style Islamic law in Islamabad.

Journalists were barred from the area around the mosque, but several explosions were heard during a period of intense gunfire before dusk Thursday, sending a plume of black smoke into the sky.

The demands of the radicals within the mix of students are demanding a Taliban-style Islamic law in Islamabad.

KARACHI - A fierce battle to seize Taliban and al-Qaeda assets in Pakistan has begun from the capital Islamabad, where hundreds of militants holed up in the radical Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) are surrounded by 12,000 Pakistani troops.

Significantly, Lal Masjid has become the rallying point for jihadis against the establishment. The country's jihadis have traditionally fought under the umbrella of the state in Kashmir or in Afghanistan - not against their own government.

Security forces, after delaying for months, began their assault on Lal Masjid on Tuesday, despite very real fears that the action would inflame radicals across the country, especially in the pro-Taliban tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan.

Since then, at least 24 people have died, including militants, security officers and bystanders. Scores have been injured. More than 2,000 students at the mosque and nearby seminaries for men and women have surrendered to the authorities. And one of the two outspoken brothers who run the mosque, Maulana Abdul Aziz, was arrested while trying to flee under disguise of a woman's burqa (veil). His brother, Abdul Rasheed Ghazi, is still in the mosque.

Although the director general of the Pakistan Army's Inter Services Public Relations, Major-General Waheed Arshad, has denied any direct military involvement in the crackdown, tanks fired shells at Lal Masjid in the early hours of Thursday, apparently destroying its front wall.

More than 100 armed militants are thought to be well entrenched in the women's seminary adjacent to the mosque as well as in the mosque itself. The government has let several deadlines for the students to surrender expire. The latest was 12:30pm local time on Thursday. Circling Cobra helicopter gunships received heavy fire from within the mosque.

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The Pakistani military's several operations in the Waziristans over the past few years have always primarily been against al-Qaeda and foreign militants, and the establishment has had a policy of reconciliation with Pakistani jihadis - hence the peace deals.

Admittedly some breakaway factions have targeted the establishment, but with specific goals, such as the assassination of President General Pervez Musharraf, of which there have been several attempts. As a whole, though, the establishment and the jihadis have not fought one another.

Recent estimates suggest there are as many as 200,000 Pakistani jihadis, mostly in bases in the Waziristans, NWFP and southwestern Balochistan. Their mission is to join the insurgency in Afghanistan to fight against the foreign occupiers there. The attack on Lal Masjid could give them new targets in their own country.

Not all who are holed up in the mosque are radicals but both male and female students:

SEVERAL blasts were heard and heavy gunfire erupted yesterday as armoured personnel carriers moved towards a besieged mosque in the Pakistani capital.

Radical students from Islamabad's Red Mosque and security forces engaged in some of the most intense fighting since the crisis began on Tuesday.

Local television reported that commandos had encircled the compound in the heart of Islamabad. Cobra helicopter gunships made repeated low passes overhead.

"There was an exchange of fire," a security official said. "The troops made an advance against the mosque and they were fired at. The troops retaliated, the exchange continued for several minutes.

"There are no casualties on the government side," the official said, adding that there was no information about student casualties.

The blasts were believed to be hand grenades thrown by the students.

A senior government official said President Pervez Musharraf had ordered security chiefs not to raid the mosque yet, because hardliners in the mosque were using women and children as human shields.