Looks like a Waco in Pakistan (fire at Red Mosque)

[blitzen]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19644496/

An intense fire erupted Saturday at the Red Mosque and madrassa where militants and security forces have been engaged in a six-day standoff, NBC News reported.

Pakistani military forces carried out an operation earlier, and walls and infrastructure of the compound have been damaged. No further details were available regarding casualties.

The fire comes hours after President Pervez Musharraf ordered the Islamist militants barricaded inside to surrender or die, while concern grew for hundreds of women and children inside the beseiged compound in the Pakistani capital.

[acmavm]

1. Oh f**k sakes. I wonder if Musharraf decided that they weren't going to

surrender so he'd better be carrying out the 'or' part of his threat.

[annabanana]

2. There is no possible way for this to end "well"..

Innocent people will be dying alongside the guilty... Our "friend" Musharrif will be held accountable. Radical Islamic Fundies will have their cause celebre....

[entanglement]

3. This sounds like a major tragedy in the making

There are hundreds of women and children (allegedly being used as human shields) in that building. Was Musharaf goaded into this action by our neocon brainiacs?

[RadiDem]

5. Mushie is doing the right thing - These nuts were beating women not wearing full chadors

And worse. Killing people.

Fundies gone wild.

Marx was right.

[blitzen]

6. From what I gather, most Pakistani citizens agree with you on this...

There was pressure on Mushie from secularists and religious moderates to take hard-line action against the fundies. BUt right or wrong,it's likely to stir up more trouble.

[icymist]

4. More in-depth article...

From Al Jazeera:

Mosque students given ultimatum

Pakistan's president has warned students inside the besieged Red Mosque in Islamabad that they are likely to be killed if they do not come out.

"They should surrender and hand over their weapons, otherwise they risk being killed," Pervez Musharraf said during a visit to the flood-hit province of Baluchistan on Saturday.

Hundreds of troops surrounded the fortified compound housing the mosque and a girls' madrassa on Tuesday after months of tension erupted into violence.

Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the mosque's cleric, has already said he would rather choose "martyrdom" than unconditional surrender.