UPDATE: Lal Masjid Escapees shot; Jamia Faridia Raided

This is looking ominous, as firing is now coming from areas where Jamia Fareedia is, and there appears to be a fresh attack at 2:00 am Pakistan time on the Lal Masjid madrassah.

 UPDATE: Clerical Delegation to meet with Abdul Rasheed Ghazi to persuade him to release children. Story here. Musharraf: Surrender or Die.

Earlier From Metroblogging Islamabad:

Backpacker reports:
It has started raining in Islamabad. Sources close to ground zero reported that just as it stopped raining a few militants tried escaping from the north side of the complex who were shot down by security forces and their dead bodies are lying close to the drain next to the mosque.
7th July 2:03 AM
Faint gunshots can be heard from a distance of 4 to 5 KMs. The TV shows there is smoke and fire on the Jamia Hafsa building, but the light pollution disallows me to make anything out. For a person who has spent his major childhood in Karachi in the 90s, I for know what gun shots sound like. HORRIFIC!
7th July 1:30 AM
The problem might just have exasperated by the operation as F-7 and E-7 are rocked by gun fire, and explosions. Jamia Faridia is located in E-7. Good God… help Islamabad. What the heck!!! >:X These might be the same students that were released yesterday. I fear they have regrouped and rearmed. Damn…
7th July 1:30 AM
Earlier, Ahmed reported,

Some development as reported by www.onlinenews.com:ISLAMABAD: Lal Masjid cleric Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi Friday showed willingness to hand over 3 orphans.

It has learnt that member of MMA Shah Abdul Aziz made a telephonic contact with besieged leader of Lal Masjid extremists to know about situation of teenage students, female and male, requested for their hand over, guaranteed for their proper look after but Lal Masjid mullah imparted that there were no teenagers in Mosque as propagated by government expect three, one male and two females, could be handed over on the pledge of their proper bring up.

Later on, Maulana Aziz had informed and discussed this development with officials of Interior Ministry to hatch a mechanism for the custody of these orphans.
Mega phones being used to inform the press and media men around to move back, further, from the firing zone.
7th July 1:18 AM
SHOTS FIRED! Firing from both ends in the standoff, Lal Masjid have opened fire with the Spec Ops doing the same! Heavy firing heard from the G-6 area as far as G-10. Ambulances can be heard rushing towards hospitals. The Special Forces have made a final move in as it seems. 7.7.7 in the making!?

UPDATE: Jamia Fareedia raided, dozens of arrests  — potentially in response to the assassination attempt on Musharraf earlier, or possibly to prevent further outbreaks or reinforcements to Lal Masjid. Story at Breitbart

Pakistani police early Saturday seized control of an Islamic seminary run by the clerics from the embattled Red Mosque, officials said. “Police stormed into Jamia Faridia and arrested dozens of students and shifted them to an unknown place,” a senior security official told AFP.The male seminary is located in the upmarket E-7 sector, three kilometres (two miles) from the besieged Red mosque and Jamia Hafsa female seminary where security forces are engaged in an operation against radical students.The senior cleric of the Taliban-style Red Mosque, Abdul Aziz, was the principal of Jamia Faridia and was caught on Wednesday escaping from the Red Mosque in a burqa.

More at the Australian.

Previous posts and history since April Here.