ISLAMABAD, July 8: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz reiterated the government position on Sunday that all children and girls held hostage at the Lal Masjid-Jamia Hafsa complex must be released immediately and the remaining people should surrender.

Responding to a question regarding chances of a negotiated settlement of the crisis at a ceremony for handing over youths who had come out of Lal Masjid to their families at the sports complex here on Sunday, the prime minister said those surrendering would be treated strictly in accordance with law.

Only 34 families turned up to take their wards with them. There are a total of 152 boys presumed to be aged under 18. They were kept in various dormitories of the sports complex.

Mr Aziz said he was not sure if a breakthrough would be achieved in the stand-off. He declined to say how long the operation will continue.

He dismissed as ridiculous a reporter’s assertion that the operation was being deliberately delayed, saying that “No state and no government would be sane enough to use such human issue to gain political mileage out of it.”

Asked about the presence of foreign extremist elements inside the two buildings, Mr Aziz said: “It will ultimately be exposed but the resistance offered to security agencies speaks much about their training in lengthy warfare”.

Defending the government’s strategy of prolonging the operation to flush out extremist elements from Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa, he said the government had demonstrated tolerance for the safety of innocent children and women held hostage so that they came out unscathed.

He told a questioner that while all the females coming out of the complex were sent to their homes and boys under 18 were being returned to their families, men above 18 were being debriefed and would be released in due course of time.

He said the government desired that peace returned to the city as early as possible and people lived in peace. For this purpose, all facilities at its command were being provided to those living under curfew.