Click to play videoNew Delhi: After more than 48 hours of gunbattles during Operation Silence, Pakistani army troopers began a cleanup, allowing cameras to capture the mosque complex - walls peppered with bullets that lead into one destroyed room after another.
There is also evidence of petrol bombs that were used by the radicals to fight back Pakistani rangers in the final stages.
An arsenal of rocket launchers, anti personnel mines, bombs and chemicals all proof of how long radicals were prepared to resist the forces. And basement bunkers allegedly used to keep hundreds of hostages through the siege.
"At night they would lock us into rooms that were packed with other students. There was no electricity and I nearly suffocated. I am just happy to be alive," says one of the hostages.
However, dozens were not so lucky. Many buried their loved ones on Thursday and others are still searching. Meanwhile, General Musharraf paid tribute to 10 of his men who were slain in the Operation and met wounded soldiers.
But the real cost of the Lal masjid operation will only now be counted.
In cities across the country, and in killed cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi's hometown of Rojhan, hundreds shouted anti-Musharraf slogans even as al-Qaeda second on command, Ayman al-Zawahiri issued another death threat.
"This crime can only be washed by repentance or blood," he said in a new tape released on Thursday.
Operation Silence has ended, but the questions over the operation are growing louder - like how many of those that died were militants, and how the General's forces allowed so much artillery into a place of worship in the first place.
Another question that is hounding the Pakistani regime now is whether the fire that consumed Lal Masjid will now ignite radicals at other madrassas in the country.
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)
 |
 |
 |
|
More on IBNLive Right Now
MOST SHARED
PHOTOGALLERY
