ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Hardline clerics said Sunday that they had released two Pakistani policemen held hostage at a mosque here, after a deal was struck with authorities to free four extremists.
The clerics said two other policemen still held captive would be released only when a total of 11 men detained by the Pakistani government were freed.
Dozens of students from a madrassa, or seminary, attached to the Red Mosque in Islamabad seized the four policemen on Friday evening, triggering a tense stand-off at the mosque between armed police and the radicals.
"We released two policemen late Saturday as a goodwill gesture," the mosque's deputy leader, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, told AFP.
"None of our 11 students have returned yet, but we hope to get back four of them shortly in the first phase and rest afterwards as agreed by the authorities," he said.
Late on Sunday, students armed with batons took guard outside the mosque after rumours circulated that police were planning an operation to rescue their two colleagues still held hostage.
The government has not commented on the trade-off, which was greeted in local press with the headlines: "Government bows to Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) mullahs" and "Lal Masjid gets its own way."
The apparent concession came despite President Pervez Musharraf's recent vow to tackle what he said was rising militancy in Pakistan.
Last month the Red Mosque set up a self-styled Islamic court, which issued a fatwa, or religious decree, against Pakistan's female tourism minister for hugging a French paragliding instructor after a charity jump.
She was reported on Sunday to have resigned after bowing to political pressure and harassment from Islamic militants.
The mosque's male and female students have also launched anti-vice patrols, targeting music and video shops.
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