| Time to recast the hard boyz of Lal Masjid as simple, if extremely heavily arsenaled seminarians, yearning for enlightenment and a fervent wish for a personal connection to G-d. |
Chunks of concrete are missing from the mosque's minarets. The walls of a religious school painted with Islamic verses are peppered with bullet holes. Black flies swarm over a makeshift bunker, blasted apart under a stairwell. A day after Pakistani commandos killed the last Islamic militants barricaded inside the Red Mosque complex, the army guided journalists around the shattered masonry and blackened interiors Thursday amid lingering questions over how many civilians died.
Officials say 108 people in all were killed during eight days of fighting that began with street battles between militants and security forces on July 3, but they haven't provided a precise breakdown of casualties. The government says 85 deaths occurred during the 35-hour battle that ended the siege, including nine soldiers and 19 bodies burned so severely they couldn't be identified. It said earlier deaths included a soldier, a policeman, some militants and several civilians who were caught in the crossfire of the initial street fighting.
The military hoped to ease public skepticism and demonstrate how the heavily armed extremists turned one of the capital's most prominent holy sites into a fortress. Opening barriers of tangled barbed wire around the sprawling compound, soldiers escorted reporters through the bent-back metal gates of the Jamia Hafsa, a religious school for girls next door to the Red Mosque. |