Pakistan President's plane fired on

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A Pakistani religious student receives a kiss on her forehead from her mother after surrendering outside the Red Mosque, in Islamabad Thursday. Isolated shots rang out as a group of worried parents entered the mosque Friday to collect children caught up

ISLAMABAD, July 6: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's plane was fired on as it took off Friday from a military airfield in Rawalpindi, an intelligence officer said, contradicting official denials.
Gen. Musharraf's plane arrived safely in the southwestern town of Turbat, where the president visited flood victims, and the military denied there had been any attack.
But an intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there had been an unsuccessful attempt on Gen. Musharraf's life.
A Reuters photographer saw two large guns mounted on the roof of a two-storey house in the congested area close to the airport, and a neighbour said he heard the firing.
One appeared to be a long barrelled anti-aircraft gun and the other a light machine gun.
They were placed between large satellite dishes and a water tank of the flat-roofed house, located directly under the flight path close to the runway. A low wall ran round the perimeter of the roof.
Security is normally deployed in the area ahead of president's flights. The timings of Gen. Musharraf's flights are generally kept secret.
Neighbour Arshad Mehmood said the house had been vacant and up for rent, though a couple with two children had visited it the previous night.
Security forces have cordoned off the area around the house in the garrison town next to the capital, Islamabad, and the owner, a shopkeeper, had been detained.
US ally Gen. Musharraf survived two assassination attempts by al-Qaeda-linked militants in Rawalpindi in December, 2003.
According to some accounts given by television reporters a rocket was also fired at the plane.
But the Pakistan military was adamant there had been no attack.
"There was no firing at the president's plane. He is in Turbat," an army spokesman said.
Gen. Musharraf has been a hated figure among Pakistani militant groups since he abandoned support for the Taliban and sought peace with India over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
The reports of a fresh assassination attempt came as Pakistani security forces laid siege to a mosque in Islamabad where a radical cleric and hundreds of followers were holed up after clashes Tuesday. At least 19 people have been killed so far in the clashes and bloody stand-off.
Meanwhile: Heavy gunfire and explosions rocked a besieged Pakistani mosque early Friday after the government rejected a conditional surrender offer by a cleric it accused of using women and children as human shields.
Authorities said Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the deputy leader of the Lal Masjid or Red Mosque in Islamabad, must come out with his 1,000 followers and lay down their weapons following days of violence that have left 19 people dead.
A day after his brother, the head of the mosque, was caught fleeing in a woman's burqa, Ghazi said he would give himself up if he could stay on the premises temporarily with their sick mother.
"I am making this offer to save the lives of the students," he said late Thursday.
Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azeem immediately dismissed the offer, saying that Ghazi was hiding in the basement of the mosque with 20 women and an unknown number of children and could not escape justice.
"The time for rhetoric is over. He must come out with the women and children he is using as shields, hand over all the weapons, and bring it to a decent closure," he told AFP.
The tense standoff erupted Thursday afternoon in some of the heaviest clashes yet, with students opening fire on troops and hurling hand grenades, chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said.
Two huge blasts later destroyed most of the wall surrounding the complex and sent smoke spewing into the evening sky.
Officials said security forces were using explosives to demolish the wall and had come under rocket attack.
Heavy gunfire and blasts erupted again early Friday after nearly an eight- hour lull as armoured personnel carriers moved closer to the mosque.
"Explosive charges have been detonated by security forces to further damage and demolish the boundary wall," a security official told AFP.
Two more blasts and heavy gunfire again erupted around 3:00 am (2200 GMT) as sporadic firing continued.
Interior minister Aftab Sherpao earlier said there were up to 60 "hardcore" militants in the building.
"They have AK-47s, grenades and petrol bombs, they are keeping women and children who want to come out of the mosque and are not allowing them to leave," he told a briefing.
President Pervez Musharraf, a key US ally, had however ordered security chiefs not to raid the mosque yet to avoid casualties among women and children, a top government official told AFP.
"That is delaying the final push against the compound," he added.
Ghazi and his brother, Abdul Aziz, both denied that anyone was being kept against their will.