ISLAMABAD, May 22: Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema on Tuesday said the government had no intention to conduct any operation against Lal Masjid militants. It could be carried out only as the ‘last resort’, he added.

Briefing the media on the law and order situation in the country, he said the government would avoid using force against Lal Masjid and would focus on dialogue to resolve the issue peacefully.

He said the militants of Lal Masjid had challenged the government’s writ several times, first by occupying the children’s library on January 21, then by abducting three women accusing them of running a brothel, sending written warnings to owners of music and CDs shops, asking them of close their business, setting on fire a CD shop in Barakahu area, kidnapping two police personnel and seizing two vehicles, setting up a Sharia court, issuing a fatwa against the federal minister for tourism and the recent kidnapping of four policemen.

Brigadier Cheema said Lal Masjid militants demanded release of three arrested students of Jamia Fareedia in return for freeing two police officials kidnapped them.

But, he said, the student would not be freed because they had been booked for a severe crime of burning a shop and CDs in the Barakahu area.

“The government has asked the mosque administration to release two detained cops unconditionally and expressed the hope that the issue would be amicably resolved soon,” he said.

“The government wants to resolve the issue amicably and is exercising maximum restraint to avoid the use of force and an operation would be the last option,” the official said.

“Some 5,000 security officials have reached Islamabad to assist the capital police in any operation,” he said.

The government, he said, had sought the help of ulema and religious scholars to resolve the issue.