In a rare display of unity, albeit with slight cracks, 37 big and small opposition parties of the country participating in the two-day all-party conference (APC) in London on Sunday asked General Musharraf to step down to ensure fair, free and honest elections and vowed to wage a joint struggle to block his bid for election from the incumbent assemblies with every tool, including resignations.

The conference convened by former premier Nawaz Sharif met some hiccups during two days of deliberations but finally papered over differences and reached an accord on most major points. However, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP)'s reservations on assembly resignations were honoured and were reflected in the long, somewhat wordy declaration issued after long and often difficult negotiations.

The drafting committee, made up of various party representatives, took hours to come to an accord on a joint statement. There were two sticking points that caused the delay. The PPP was not ready to agree to a clause that it would resign its assembly seats if President Musharraf tried to get himself re-elected before the present assemblies ended their time.

PPP chairperson stayed out being the only notable opposition politician out of the moot though she sent a 5-member delegation to attend. She has been around in London but flew to Paristo attend a wedding ceremony with plans to return on Tuesday. At one point it was decided that Asfandyar Wali and Mahmood Khan Achakzai would be sent to meet Benazir Bhutto to persuade her to accept the idea, but the plan was abandoned.

It was later decided that top leaders of all political parties stay on in London for a final meeting on Thursday to convince Ms. Bhutto to join the united front.

The PPP was also unwilling to commit itself to turning the APC into a joint platform with a single-point agenda, namely the end of the Musharraf regime.

The APC declaration said since the unconstitutional take over on October 12, 1999, the state and its institutions had been used to perpetuate General Musharaff's rule.

The parties pledged to work in harmony to turn Pakistan into a truly democratic state with supremacy of the Constitution, rule of law, fair and free elections, free media, and a depoliticised military.

The declaration said the media had been choked and could not report the actual situation in the country. It stated that free and fair elections were impossible under current conditions. All parties denounced the May 12 violence in Karachi and called it "an engineered massacre" of innocent party workers at the hands of the MQM, while the police and the Rangers stood by.

The declaration stated that the assault on the judiciary was disgraceful. The declaration also condemned the murder of Sardar Akbar Bugti and blamed the government for the deteriorating conditions in Baluchistan.

Islamabad, July 9
Red is the colour militant Islamists shunned because it is identified with Communists, or a "Kafir", meaning an infidel, but the Lal Masjid or the Red Mosque currently besieged by Pakistani troops to flush out militants has remained synonymous with its "red" brand of Islam ever since its inception over four decades ago.

The sprawling masjid in central Islamabad is perhaps one of the rare mosques to have a name not connected with Islam. True to its name, it has remained a centre of defiance ever since it was constructed in 1965, even though it was managed by the government.

Lal Masjid is the name given by Auqaf department that managed it, which many believe was due to its red-coloured walls and interiors. Over the years, it became a centre of radical Islam playing a major role in generating the jehadis to fight the occupation of Afghanistan by the erstwhile Soviet Union and after that transferred into a centre of extremist Sunni ideology.

Maulana Abdullah, the father of the two clerics Abdul Aziz and his younger brother Abdul Rashid Ghazi, was chosen as the first cleric of the mosque by none other than Pakistan's first military ruler Ayub Khan.

The clerics remained on the payroll of the government ever since receiving state funds, salary and patronage.

It was during military ruler Gen Zia-ul-Haq's time that Lal Masjid managed to acquire a lot of state land in Islamabad to build its sprawling madrassas for boys and girls.

Abdullah was gunned down outside the masjid in 1998, by suspected rival Shia militants. After a brief lull, the mosque became a centre of anti-US forces ever since Washington and NATO alliance took control of Afghanistan after 9/11.

The masjid showed its street power for the first time in 2003 when a radical Sunni leader Aziz Tariq was killed.

It also passed a controversial edict in 2004 against Pakistani soldiers fighting in Waziristan tribal agency to flush out Al-Qaida and Taliban militants.

"It was the same year Lal Masjid's links with Al-Qaida were revealed with the arrest of Osama bin Laden's driver. The government at that time also accused Abdul Rashid of masterminding attacks on government installations but he was mysteriously cleared of those charges," the 'Dawn' reports.

Ironically, the present religious affairs minister Ijazul Haq, the son of Zia-ul Haq, reportedly admitted playing a role in getting the brothers released.

The mosque and its madrassas came under the scanner in 2005, when its girl students resisted an operation in the wake of the 7/7 London bombings after the UK called on Pakistan to crack down on radical Islamic schools. — PTI

In a dramatic move, the SC today took suo moto notice of the Lal Masjid standoff and constituted a two-member Bench to initiate judicial action igniting a ray of hope of a possible breakthrough.

The Bench led by justice Nawaz Abbasi and including justice Faqir Hussain Khokhar wasted little time and immediately began proceedings. The Bench directed director general of the Crisis Management wing of the interior ministry to appear tomorrow.

Earlier, justice Abbasi took an unprecedented step in the country's judicial history to petition the Acting Chief Justice of the apex court justice Rana Bhagwandas to take notice of the extra-judicial killings in and around Lal Masjid and violation of human rights of hundreds of boys and girls. The SC action came amid some feverish activity throughout today to resolve the deadlock that is fast moving closer to a military operation that may cost hundreds of lives.

Religious affairs minister Ejazul Haq told mediapersons last night that foreign terrorists including nine most-wanted persons for crimes inside and outside Pakistan are present in the mosque and keeping between 250 to 500 male and female students as hostages to use them as human shield.

In the morning today, President Pervez Musharraf held a top-level meeting deferring his earlier reported decision to immediately launch the operation. Ruling party chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain also attended the meeting.

Intense firing had resumed early morning around Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa in which the two sides exchange heavy ammunition. The guns were silenced an hour later and both sides appeared observing a ceasefire while the security forces relaxed curfew imposed within the 3-km radius.