ISLAMABAD, July 14: Interior ministry spokesman Brig (retd) Javed Iqbal Cheema said on Saturday that 10 bodies of foreigners were recovered from the Lal Masjid-Jamia Hafsa compound. Their photographs would be released to the media soon.

Speaking at a press conference, he said all rescued girls and children had been sent home. Of the 628 detained male seminary students, 472 had been released while 156 others were in judicial lockup on different charges.

About the missing students, he said a special cell had been set up at the Sports Complex, where parents and relatives of 36 students had submitted applications. Thirty-two applicants had been reunited with their relatives, he added.

He said that some people were exaggerating the casualty figures of the military raid on the compound.

He said that since the start of the operation on July 3, a total of 103 people, including Abdul Rashid Ghazi, were killed. Those who were challenging this figure should prove their claim.

Cheema said that after the end of the operation on July 11, 22 charred bodies were recovered from two rooms in the complex.

Seven bodies of children were found in the courtyard of the mosque, nine bodies of girls were recovered from a room of Jamia Hafsa and a woman’s body, believed to be of Maulana Ghazi’s mother, was found in Maulana Abdul Rashid’s house.

“Apart from this there was no other casualty,” he claimed.

—APP