Islamabad, Pakistan - Security forces clashed with militants Tuesday outside a radical mosque in the Pakistani capital, prompting gunfire that left one soldier dead and several students and troops wounded.
The battle marked a major escalation in a standoff at the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, whose clerics have challenged the military-led government by mounting a vigilante anti-vice campaign in Islamabad.
Trouble began when student followers of the mosque, including young men with firearms and dozens of women wearing black burkas, rushed toward a nearby police checkpoint Tuesday afternoon. The police and paramilitary Rangers fired tear gas and, as the students retreated, an Associated Press photographer saw at least four male students, some of them masked, fire shots toward security forces about 200 meters, or 650 feet, away. Gunfire was also heard from the police position.
A man used the mosque's loudspeakers to order suicide bombers to get into position. "They have attacked our mosque, the time for sacrifice has come," the man said.
An hour later, dozens of students were patrolling the area around the mosque, and sporadic shots were still heard. There was no sign of security forces, who have massed in the area in recent weeks, moving in on the mosque.
Some of the students carried gas masks, and several were seen with gasoline-filled bottles. About a dozen were armed with firearms, including AK-47 assault rifles. Dozens of stone-throwing students shattered windows of a government building near the mosque, chanting, "Taliban, long live Taliban," a reference to Afghanistan's radical Islamic insurgents.
Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the mosque's deputy leader, said the Rangers had provoked the trouble by erecting barricades near the mosque. "The government is to be blamed for it," he said.
When asked about the presence of armed students at his mosque, Ghazi said they were "guards."
One paramilitary soldier struck in the clash died later at a hospital, Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said.
A doctor at the nearby Polyclinic Hospital said that about 60 people had been brought there for treatment following the clash. Most were suffering from the effects of tear gas, but they also included several students - male and female - with bullet wounds, he said.
The doctor, who asked for anonymity because officials had told hospital staff not to speak to reporters, said two members of the security forces were also being treated at the hospital for gunshot wounds.