ISLAMABAD, July 05: Interior Ministry spokesman Brig E Javid Iqbal Cheema on Thursday ruled out any negotiation with Naib Khateeb of Lal Masjid Abdul Rashid Ghazi saying he is a criminal and has to surrender before security forces.

Speaking at a news conference here on Thursday, he said time was running fast and the remaining students inside the Lal Masjid should surrender as soon as they can by vacating the premises of the mosque.

The spokesman said majority of students had come out of the mosque. He said some 1,146 including 745 male and 401 female students had surrendered and expressed the hope that the remaining students would vacate the mosque soon.

He said students were surrendering voluntarily and 20 male and 20 female students surrendered on Thursday morning.

He said that there might be 25 to 30 hardcore elements inside the mosque while the remaining would be in hundreds, he added.

To a question, Cheema said those who had surrendered were not being sent to jails but were being kept in various places after scanning and debriefing. Female students were kept in the Haji Camp, he said.

He said the parents of female students would be allowed to enter Jamia Hafsa and take their children with them.

He said that the government was pursuing strategy to complete operation in minimum time with minimum human casualties. He asked the remaining students to take benefit of deadlines given the government and vacate the mosque.

To another question, he said he had reports of 16 deaths so far.

Cheema said that the small arms were being fired on the security forces from inside the Lal Masjid late on Wednesday night in response of which the forces also retaliated. He said the main gate of Jamia Hafsa had also been bulldozed by the security forces.

The spokesman said electricity of G-6 sector had been restored and a two-hour relaxation had been given in curfew from 1:30pm to 3:30pm.

When asked that whether the operation would be extended till July 7 or 8, he said that the government couldn’t give any timeframe of the operation.—PPI