Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday said those holed up inside Lal Masjid will all be killed if they don’t surrender. “No compromise would be made on peace and the writ of law will be ensured all over the country at all costs," Dawn News TV quoted the General as saying during a visit to Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, to oversee flood relief work.Deputy cleric of Lal Masjid Abdul Rashid Gazi, on the other hand, claimed shots fired at Musharraf's plane on Friday were in revenge for the government siege on the mosque. “I received a telephone call yesterday from a man I did not know who offered congratulations before news of the attack on Musharraf’s aircraft became public. He said, ‘I fired at Musharraf’s plane just a while ago’,” said Gazi. Gazi also alleged that government forces had killed 70-80 of his students. He, however, insisted that he and his supporters preferred martyrdom to capture. The government says only 19 people have been killed since Tuesday. There were unconfirmed accounts of the mosque’s defenders burying more bodies on Saturday.Explosions and intense gunfire continued into the fifth day of the siege as thousands of troops ringing the mosque, attempted to end the standoff but held back from an all-out assault. A report said Pakistani security forces had raided and captured the boys’ madrasa of Lal Masjid Jamia Faridia and taken a large number of students into custody. A five-member team of Islamist politicians blamed security forces for opening fire, saying this had prevented the team from entering the mosque. The panel of religious conservatives was on a mission to persuade Gazi to send out children.“Whatever happens now, the government will be responsible,” said member of Parliament Samia Raheel Qazi.
