ISLAMABAD, July 9: President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Monday called for fresh efforts to resolve the Lal Masjid issue peacefully. He said that necessary support should be provided to religious leaders and PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain in their efforts to end the crisis.

He was presiding over a high-level meeting in his camp office in Rawalpindi.

The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, Vice-Chief of Army Staff General Ahsan Saleem Hayat, Minister of State for Information Tariq Azim, Minister of State for Interior Zafar Iqbal Warraich and officials of departments concerned and security and intelligence agencies.

Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao told Dawn that the president called for securing the safe release of women and children held hostage by militants in Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa.

There is no decision to delay or call off the operation, the interior minister said, when asked whether fresh efforts by religious leaders and the PML president meant delaying or calling off the operation.

He said the meeting was given a detailed presentation on the Lal Masjid standoff and various possible solutions.

The government is determined not to hold direct talks with those who had taken the law into their own hands, and tried to create a state within a state, he said.

The president stressed that efforts should be made to ensure that minimum causalities occurred in case a full-fledged operation was launched and the matter should be ended quickly.

The interior minister said that hardened criminals were present in Lal Masjid and they had made innocent women and children hostage. Despite having strong reservations about these criminals, we are still exercising maximum restraint to avoid bloodshed, he said.

The president appreciated the exemplary restraint extended by personnel of law-enforcement agencies. He also lauded the cooperation extended by residents of G-6 area to the government and law-enforcement agencies.

He asked officials concerned to ensure security of the people residing in the areas under curfew. He also called for measures to ease people’s hardships and to restore electricity and gas supply to areas around Lal Masjid.