Lal Masjid issue-Mystery shrouds exact casualty figures, media visit put off
ISLAMABAD, July 11: The government said on Wednesday that army commandos had wiped out all militant resistance in IslamabadÂ’s Lal Masjid compound after an eight-day operation, but withheld from the media some vital information about the civilian casualty toll.
A witness, who had access to the two buildings, told Dawn of having seen piles of bodies lying on the floors.
A promised media trip to the site was put off for a day, fuelling speculation that the government was buying time to remove some telltale signs.
The top military spokesman put the death toll of militants since the start of the operation on July 3 at 73 and that of troops at 10. But other accounts, including one by a witness, said the civilian toll could be much higher.
These fears were strengthened even by an afternoon news briefing by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director-General Maj-Gen Waheed Arshad when he said he could not give an exact figure until the operation, then at ‘sanitisation’ or ‘clearing’ stage, was complete.
But he later told the Dawn News television channel the death toll of militants had risen to 73. On Tuesday he had put the toll at 50.
The authorities’ refusal to allow the media to visit the curfew-bound Lal Masjid area, which has been cordoned off by troops, raised fears a number of women and children might have been killed along with militants.
Gen Arshad said at the briefing that the media team had not been taken to the scene because the second phase of the operation had started clearing the area of the final hardcore of militants putting up a fight to the death.
“We have concurrently started the second phase of the operation: combing and sanitisation of the whole area. We will take media people to the site on Thursday.”
The eyewitness, who said he had visited the complex on Wednesday, told Dawn that the site was littered with bodies wrapped in white shrouds. “I could not count them but they must be in the hundreds.”
The witness, who did not want to be identified, said many of the bodies had decomposed, enveloping the place in stench.
“I saw some bodies on the rooftop of the mosque being nibbled at by birds.”
He said the structure of the Jamia Hafsa had been badly damaged, but the condition of Lal Masjid was comparatively better.
The outer walls of the complex stand demolished at many places and one can see inside of the mosque through breaches that the authorities had made by explosives to make escape possible.
The witness said that volunteers and private rescue services had been stopped from lifting bodies, which were likely to be shifted elsewhere at night, although some of them were sent to two mortuaries in Islamabad’s I-8 sector.
Source: Dawn
Date:7/12/2007
” 
” 
” 
” 
