ISLAMABAD, 8 July 2007 — Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf yesterday urged those holed up in a besieged mosque in the capital to surrender or risk being killed. “Those who are inside the Red Mosque should surrender, otherwise they will get killed,” Musharraf told reporters in his first public statement on the five-day standoff.

“They should not prolong, they should surrender and hand over their weapons, otherwise they risk being killed,” Musharraf said during a visit to the flood-hit southwestern province of Balochistan.

Musharraf said his government had exercised restraint to ensure the safety of women and children. “No one can fight the power of the government, but the problem is that there are women and children inside,” he said.

Hundreds of hard-line students and dozens of militants have been holed up at the Red Mosque in Islamabad since Tuesday in a bloody confrontation.

The government says dozens of women and children are still inside the mosque being used as human shields.

Musharraf said 1,300 people had already surrendered so the rest should now follow. “They have defamed Islam, they have defamed Pakistan, they have embarrassed Pakistan internationally,” he added.

His statement came hours after Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the mosque’s defiant cleric leading the resistance, said he had received a call from an unidentified man who had allegedly tried to shoot Musharraf’s plane on Friday in revenge for the crackdown.

Explosions and intense gunfire continued overnight and yesterday as troops ringing the mosque attempted to end the standoff, but held back from an all-out assault. Although the government says only 19 people have died since Tuesday, Ghazi told the local Geo television channel more than 70 of his students had been slain by government gunfire. He said his followers preferred martyrdom to capture.

“There are 70 to 80 bodies of our students,” he said, a claim that could not be independently verified.

The siege has added to the risks facing Musharraf, who must cope with a gathering storm of domestic extremism as well as a popular backlash from his bungled attempt at firing the country’s chief justice. Authorities yesterday were also investigating a possible assassination attempt against him, after shots were fired as Musharraf’s plane took off from a military base near the capital.

Musharraf was flying from Chaklala Air Base in Rawalpindi on Friday morning when shots rang out from a neighborhood that lies directly under the flight path, officials and witnesses said. If confirmed, the attack would be at least the fourth attempt on Musharraf’s life since his decision to side with the United States in its war on terror enraged Taleban and Al-Qaeda-linked radicals in Pakistan.

It was not clear whether the incident was linked to the siege, but street protests organized by radical groups have been staged daily since the government began its strike against the mosque Tuesday.

Troops surrounded the mosque and an adjoining women’s madrasa after tensions between government security forces and students — who have sought to impose Taleban-style rule in the city — erupted into deadly street clashes.

More than 1,200 people, mainly students from the mosque’s two madrasas, have fled the complex. Officials say up to 100 armed militants and an unknown number of students remain inside. Of those who surrendered, about 25 people were taken to a secret place and were being interrogated by security forces.

A statement from Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the government was deeply concerned about the plight of women and children who are being held as “hostages.”

Ghazi, who has sought safe passage for himself and his followers, reiterated yesterday he would not surrender. He denied holding anyone against their will.

“We are ready to lay down arms, but we should not be arrested,” he said, adding, “We are ready to be martyred.”

Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao rejected the conditional surrender offer, insisting Ghazi would have to face the courts.

As the confrontation approached its 100th hour yesterday, a dozen loud explosions rocked the area near the mosque. Gunfire was also heard as a delegation of clerics headed toward the mosque to meet with Ghazi and convince him to surrender, according to Shah Abdul Aziz, a lawmaker who is closely associated with the cleric.

Syed Bilal, one of the delegates, told reporters Ghazi was ready to meet with them, but security officials stopped them from going inside because of the intense gunfire. After Bilal insisted on going inside the mosque, police pushed him into a car and sped away, said Samia Qazi, a female lawmaker who was at the scene.

Several female lawmakers from extremist parties rallied near the Parliament building yesterday, urging the government to hold talks with Ghazi to peacefully resolve the issue.

— With input from agencies