Pakistan News And Discussion-11

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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Negotiating team reaches Lal Masjid ISLAMABAD, July 9 (Reuters) - A delegation of Muslim scholars along with ex-premier and head of the ruling PML Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain assembled outside the besieged Lal Masjid with loudspeakers late Monday afternoon to beseech Abdul Rashid Ghazi and his militants to send out dead and wounded along with women and children. They were mandated earlier in the day by prime minister Shaukat Aziz to make yet another attempt to end the seven-day old crisis. “We have come here to make a last request,” Shujaat told reporters as he approached the barbed wire cordon. “We are here to request them to hand over bodies to us and send injured for treatment. We will try to take forward the negotiation process.” (Posted @ 19:30 PST)<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Lal Masjid cleric agrees to talks, govt offers house arrest: PM ISLAMABAD, July 9 (AFP) –Lal Masjid’s cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi under siege in his mosque agreed to hold crunch talks Monday with ministers and religious scholars via loudspeaker in a bid to end the crisis, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told newsmen <b>He said the government was ready to offer Ghazi the option to be held under house arrest along with his ailing mother if he surrenders and leaves the mosque.</b> A seven-member negotiating team headed by former premier Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain will try to persuade Ghazi to give himself up and to free women and children inside the complex, the prime minister said. “The team will negotiate through a speaker system so that all team members can hear whatever Ghazi says,” Aziz said at his official residence in Islamabad. “We are not sending any negotiating team inside the mosque as they are unpredictable people and have also taken six parents as hostage,” Aziz added. “We are trying to avoid loss of life and using all negotiating options to end this crisis, including house arrest for Ghazi and his old mother,” the premier added. (Posted @ 18:54 PST)<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->