ISLAMABAD: Some people on Thursday complained that the Lal Masjid administration was not allowing their relatives who had gone inside the mosque premises to collect their children from coming out, while several students who surrendered said that armed guards kept them from leaving the mosque. Mohibullah Khan from Dir told Daily Times that his nephew Azizur Rehman had gone inside the mosque to bring his sister Hajra, 12, but had not returned despite passing of several hours.
A group of Pashto-speaking men, all from remote areas of the NWFP, expressed similar complaints, saying they were waiting for their relatives who had gone inside the mosque to pick their children. Many students, both boys and girls, who surrendered to authorities said they had been kept at the madrassa forcibly and militants had pressed them to sacrifice their lives by staying inside Lal Masjid till the end of the standoff.