May 22 (Bloomberg) -- Clerics released police officers being held at a mosque in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, ending a standoff with security forces.

``The Red Mosque clerics have released all the policemen they had taken hostage from outside their seminaries,'' Tariq Azeem, the junior minister for information and broadcasting, said in a telephone interview today. ``There was no need for use of force.''

Security forces were withdrawn from around the mosque known as the Lal Masjid, he said. Students and clerics had held two police officers at the seminary since May 18.

The standoff began last month when Maulana Mohammad Abdul Aziz, the mosque's chief cleric, set up a court on the premises, saying he wanted to bring Islamabad under Islamic law. President Pervez Musharraf has stressed that Pakistan must follow a path of moderation in order to defeat extremism in the country.

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Qaid-i-Azam, led negotiations to end the dispute. He resolved nine of 10 outstanding issues during his talks, Azeem said, adding that the question of allocating new land has still to be settled. The minister didn't indicate how the issue of the Islamic court has been resolved.

The government delayed sending security forces into the building because there were female students on the premises, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said yesterday in an interview with GEO Television. Two police officers also seized on May 18 were allowed to leave the mosque two days ago.

Islamic Court

Aziz set up the Islamic court at the Red Mosque on April 6. The next day he issued a decree calling for Tourism Minister Nilofar Bahktiar to be punished for wearing an ``objectionable'' dress. He threatened suicide attacks if police tried to shut the court or raid the premises and demanded the government close businesses selling videos and CDs and alleged brothels.

Musharraf is facing opposition from Pakistan's Islamist groups over his support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism that began in 2001.

His government is also trying to control street protests that erupted after he removed Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry from his post on March 9 for alleged misuse of authority. The unrest resulted in two days of rioting in the southern city of Karachi earlier this month that caused the deaths of 40 people.

Demonstrations against the judge's removal have escalated into opposition protests over Musharraf seeking a second five- year term as president in elections that must be held by January 2008. Musharraf seized power in a 1999 military coup and remains army chief of staff.

To contact the reporter on this story: Khaleeq Ahmed in Islamabad at

Last Updated: May 22, 2007 03:10 EDT