The Pakistani government decided Wednesday to launch operation and impose curfew near a mosque in the capital following Tuesday's bloodshed clashes between religious students and security forces.

Shoot order has been issued to those who come out armed from the mosque, Lal Masjid. And the government has ordered the mosque leaders to surrender.

According to the private Geo TV, Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf said that the deaths in Lal Masjid incident were quite deplorable.

A high-level meeting chaired by Musharraf discussed all options including operation against the Lal Masjid management.

The meeting also reviewed the public reaction in connection with the operation of Lal Masjid.

A total of nine people died and many others were injured in Tuesday's firing exchange between religious students of hard-line Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, and law enforcers in Islamabad, said Zafar Iqbal Wariach, Pakistan's Deputy Minister of State for Interior, while addressing a news briefing.

The killed included a soldier, four religious students, three passers-by and one cameraman, said Wariach.

Gunfire started at about 12:30 PM (GMT08:30) noon after a group of religious students encircled some policemen deployed near the mosque and snatched arms from them, according to officials.

Sporadic firing between Pakistan Rangers and the religious students continued for hours until late afternoon, with gun shooting sounds echoed in the neighborhood.

TV screens showed that tear gas shelling were used by the paramilitary forces, wearing gas masks.

"Despite unprovoked firing by the students of Lal Masjid, the government still wants to settle issue through dialogue," said Wariach, while talking to state-run Pakistan Television earlier.

Talking to a private TV channel, Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said the seminary students had started firing first and asked the Lal Masjid to hand over the students involved in the incident.

"The government doesn't want bloodshed but would not tolerate incidents of lawlessness," Sherpao said.

Meanwhile, deputy of the Lal Masjid Abdul Rashid Ghazi said that the government launched an operation against his mosque and seminary students without any provocation.

Ghazi said that the Rangers started teargas shelling, gun-firing that triggered stampede and injured over 100 girl children, while some of them were taken to the hospital.

After the incident, law enforcers comprising elite forces, Rangers and policemen, cordoned off the surroundings of Lal Masjidand blocked the entry of general public.

Vowing to enforce Shariat in the country, Lal Masjid clerics and their religious students entered into a standoff with the authorities since months ago over a land dispute about a seminary affiliated with the mosque.

Since then, the Lal Masjid religious students took a series of steps from occupying a government library, arresting some alleged brothel runners, attacking music shops, to kidnapping policemen.

Pakistani government has managed to defuse most of the Lal Masjid related tensions through negotiation efforts so far, but some local analysts believe that the continuous "shocking and unlawful" activities conducted by Lal Masjid have embarrassed the government's authority.

But how to deal with Lal Masjid remains a tough question for Islamabad's decision-makers, as reportedly there are over one thousand female students currently inside the mosque's affiliated seminary, who have been used as "human shield" by the mosque's hard-line clerics, according to some local analysts.

Several hundred security personnel were deployed by authorities around the mosque on June 27, a move reportedly to keep tabs on the activities of religious students.

Authorities on July 2 further deployed about 1,000 more Pakistan Rangers in apartments near Lal Masjid, bringing the total number of security personnel there to nearly 2,000, according to local newspapers.

Meanwhile, the government reportedly had also asked government offices and other people to vacate all buildings near the Lal Masjid.

Reports said that the Lal Masjid personnel had advanced weapons and special masks in prevention of tear gas shelling.

Tension apparently ran higher around Lal Masjid after the firing incident, though government officials said there was no operation decision made yet.

(Xinhua News Agency July 4, 2007)