Pakistan troops storm Lal Masjid, 160 Die
At Least 160 Killed Radical Cleric Ghazi Dead Nearly 1,700 Surrender Ishtiaq Ali Mehkri & Agencies Islamabad: Pakistani security forces stormed Islamabad’s citadel of Talibanism on Tuesday, killing nearly 160 people, including the deputy chief cleric of Lal Masjid Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who had openly challenged Prevez Musharraf and demanded Pakistan officially embrace Islamic orthodoxy by adopting harsh Shariat Laws. “He was spotted in the basement and asked to come out. He came out with four or five militants who kept on firing at security forces,’’ Army spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema said, announcing his death. The Army stormed the mosque in the heart of Islamabad and troops rushed in to flush out entrenched holdouts inside a women’s religious school in room by room fighting, a government spokesman said. Militants mounted a last stand in the basements of the madrassa, where military spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad said Ghazi had barricaded himself in. Till the filing of thi