July 09, 2007	Monday	Jamadi-us-Sani 23, 1428

ISLAMABAD, July 8: Talks between a group of Ulema and PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz held here on Sunday to discuss ways of ending the Lal Masjid standoff ended without any agreement after the government refused to change its position.

The meeting between Chaudhry Shujaat and Prime Minister Aziz at the Prime Minister House, also attended by some senior ministers, firmed up the position that militants holed up in the Masjid-Madressah complex had no alternative but to release the children and females they held hostage and to surrender to law-enforcement agencies.

Earlier, an Ulema delegation led by Wafaqul Madaris Al Arabi chief Maulana Salimullah Khan met Chaudhry Shujaat to appeal to him to ask the government to exercise restraint on the issue by halting the operation and allowing the inmates to leave the place.

Chaudhry Shujaat promised to return with a reply from the government and held a detailed meeting with Prime Minister Aziz and ministers.

The meeting discussed various options and concluded that the earlier position taken by the government and security agencies was final and there could be no change in it. The meeting observed that enough time had already been given to the militants.

Qari Hanif Jallandhri, a member of the delegation, which met the PML chief, told Dawn that the Ulema were of the view that the military operation should be immediately halted and the issue should be resolved through negotiations for the safety of children and women stranded in the complex.

He said the Ulema also requested that food items and medical aid be provided to the injured people in the two buildings and the dead be buried.

The delegation included Mufti Rafi Usmani, Dr Abdul Razaq, Maulana Zahidur Rashid and Maulana Imdadullah.