Around 1,200 male and female religious students of hard-line Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, have surrendered to Pakistani authorities in the capital city, an interior ministry spokesman said Wednesday.

Pakistani Interior Ministry Spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema also announced that the Red Mosque Imam Maulana Abdul Aziz would be charged with terrorism and murder.

Maulana Abdul Aziz was arrested earlier by a security cordon around the mosque after dressing in a burqa to escape detection, according to officials.

The Pakistani government finally lost patience with the Lal Masjid leaders on Wednesday and ordered troops in. An immediate surrender of all religious personnel was given, as well as the abandoning of all arms.

This followed a firefight on Tuesday between Lal Masjid students and law enforcers after 100 students attacked policemen and seized their arms.

Pakistan's deputy information minister earlier Wednesday said that at least 16 people were killed in the violence, while 150 others had been injured with 54 hit by bullets. He also did not rule out the possibility of bodies still being inside the mosque.

Anti-terrorism police reinforcements entered the area as night fell with several helicopters surveying operations.

The Lal Masjid movement has been part of a Taliban resurgence, manifested by the entrance of militants from remote areas near Afghanistan into central Pakistani regions.

The hardliners have mounted a campaign for months, mounting a vigilante anti-vice drive and campaigning for sharia, the strict Islamic law.

(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily via agencies July 5, 2007)