Pakistani rebel cleric ＇killed＇
Smoke rose above the Red Mosque after troops began their operation
A Pakistani cleric leading resistance at a mosque stormed by troops in the capital, Islamabad, has been killed, Interior Ministry officials say.
Abdul Rashid Ghazi＇s body was found in the basement of the Red Mosque where he had barricaded himself, officials said.
The army says up to 50 militants and eight soldiers have been killed, and about 50 women and children rescued.
Students at the mosque and its attached religious schools have waged a campaign for months pressing for Sharia law.
Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said Mr Ghazi was killed as troops were flushing out militants still inside a madrassa (religious school) for women and girls inside the mosque compound.
This is naked aggression. My martyrdom is certain now
Deputy mosque leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi
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From joy to despair
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"Yes, he has died," Mr Cheema told the Associated Press news agency.
Troops attacked the mosque overnight and took control of most of the complex during heavy fighting which raged throughout Tuesday.
Officials said Mr Ghazi was killed after he tried to surrender. It is not clear if troops or militants fired the shots which killed him.
He was deputy leader of the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque). His brother, Maulana Abdul Aziz, who was head, was arrested trying to escape last week dressed in a burka.
Hours before his reported death, Mr Ghazi accused the authorities of "naked aggression".
"My martyrdom is certain now," he told Pakistan＇s Geo television station.
Gamble
Security forces began a full-scale siege of the Lal Masjid last Tuesday, not long after mosque students abducted seven Chinese workers they accused of running a brothel.
Public anger in the capital had been mounting for months after they kidnapped policemen as well as people they considered to be involved in immoral, un-Islamic activities.
The BBC＇s M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says the military operation is a gamble for President Pervez Musharraf who risks a backlash from supporters of those inside the mosque.
In recent days the army has redeployed thousands of troops in north-western Pakistan where pro-Taleban militants opposed to President Musharraf have been carrying out a string of attacks said to be linked to the mosque siege.
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