ISLAMABAD, May 19: Lal Masjid militants on Saturday freed two of the four policemen they had kidnapped overnight after the government ‘facilitated’ the release of five of their colleagues, including a former employee of an intelligence agency, on bail.

Lal Masjid in-charge Maulana Abdul Rasheed Ghazi said the remaining two policemen would be freed after the government released other six seminary students.

However, four seminary students and a former ISI official — Khalid Khawaja, who was pursuing the case of missing people in the Supreme Court — could not be released because their surety bonds were not deposited in the court.

The police officials released have been identified as Constables Yasir Shah and Iftikhar Ahmed while ASI Aurangzeb and Constable Jehangir are still held by the so-called Lal Masjid ‘brigade’.

The mosque administration linked the release of the remaining two police officials with the release of six seminary students — Abdul Bashir, Amir, Iftikhar Ahmed, Anwarul Haq, Ibrarul Haq and Naqeeb Ullah.

Maulana Ghazi called for their early release.

Lal Masjid seminary students kidnapped four police officials of the Barakahu police station outside the mosque, accusing them of ‘spying’ for the government, on Friday. Police have reportedly arrested 10 seminary students in different incidents under different charges.

Military authorities, interior ministry, local administration and police held separate meetings on Saturday to find a ‘permanent solution’ to the Lal Masjid issue. The main meeting was held at the GHQ in Rawalpindi, which was attended by security and intelligence officials.

However, sources told this correspondent that the government was still reluctant to launch any operation against the mosque administration. A senior official of the local administration told Dawn that the talks were under way between the district administration and hardline clerics, who have already been declared proclaimed offenders in a separate case, to resolve the issue of police personnel’s detention.

Earlier, two officials — Magistrate Farasat Ali and Karman Adil — had gone to the Lal Masjid for talks but the Lal Masjid clerics linked the release of detained policemen with the release of 10 seminary students and Khalid Khawaja.

Officials representing the local administration said they could facilitate the release of only four students and Khalid Khawaja as six other students had been picked by intelligence agencies and the local administration had no jurisdiction over them.

On this, the mosque administration said only two policemen would be released in exchange for the release of four students and Khalid Khawaja against whom a case of burning a shop of video/audio Compact Discs (CDs) at Barakahu was registered last month.

Meanwhile, Rawalpindi Anti-Terrorism Court ordered release of four students and Mr Khawaja but they could not be released because of non-submission of surety bonds of Rs100,000 each but two policemen were released after sunset.

Shaukat Aziz, Khalid Khawaja’s lawyer, said Mr Khawaja could not be released on bail immediately because the court had issued another detention order under the Security of Pakistan Act. “We will file a petition to challenge the detention orders on Monday and he will be released if the orders are cancelled by the court,” he said.