Radical students seize Pakistan’s Red Mosque

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan � Radical students on Friday again commandeered Islamabad’s Red Mosque, a site that has become a symbol for the instability surging through this country. Hours later, a suicide bomber killed 13 people in a market down the street from the mosque.

Seeking a political solution, Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, reportedly met abroad with his most influential rival, exiled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

The events underscored the broad forces challenging Musharraf, a crucial U.S. ally on counterterrorism. While he is trying to quell a growing insurgency from Islamic extremists, he is also attempting to fend off a vigorous campaign from moderates to end his eight-year rule in upcoming elections.

Security forces recaptured the mosque after several hours, but scenes of police firing tear gas and protesters calling for jihad opened fresh wounds in a city still reeling from the nine-day siege at the Red Mosque that claimed more than 100 lives this month. The bombing, meanwhile, added to a series of attacks that have terrorized the country in recent weeks.

“The security situation here is getting worse every day,” student Bilal Hassan, 22, said as he surveyed the damage at the market. “You expect this in the remote areas, but not in our capital.”

Reports of a meeting in the United Arab Emirates between Musharraf and Bhutto were officially rejected as false, though political sources said privately that negotiations on a power-sharing agreement were advancing. While there is mutual contempt between Musharraf and Bhutto, Musharraf badly needs allies, and Bhutto has stated her intent to return to Pakistan for a third term as prime minister. Since both are regarded as moderates, they could form a pact to battle rising militancy.