July 5 (Bloomberg) -- As many as 60 ``hardcore militants'' who want to enforce Islamic law in Islamabad are preventing students in the Pakistani capital's besieged Red Mosque from surrendering to authorities, the government said.

The militants ``are using women and children as shields'' to stop anyone else from leaving the building, after the surrender of 1,146 students since yesterday, Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema told reporters. Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said ``50 to 60 hardcore militants'' are continuing the standoff. The death toll has risen to 19 in the clashes between students and police since July 3, Sherpao told reporters.

President Pervez Musharraf's government has been trying to resolve the stalemate at the Red Mosque, or Lal Masjid, since chief cleric Maulana Mohammad Abdul Aziz set up a religious court in the building in April to try to bring Islamic law to the city. Aziz, who has been charged with murder and terrorism, was arrested yesterday while trying to escape from the mosque.

Some 850 students, including 600 females, are inside the mosque, Aziz, who is in police custody, told state-owned Pakistan Television today. The cleric was brought before the Anti- Terrorist Court today and ordered to be held for another seven days, Sherpao said.

Pakistan can't tolerate a state within a state, Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani said yesterday.

`Unconditional Surrender'

``We want absolute, total and unconditional surrender,'' Junior Information Minister Tariq Azeem told reporters today. ``The parents of students who are still inside requested us to give more time. It will be wrong to go in with full force when women and children are still inside.''

Pakistan's government is heading into parliamentary elections facing the largest opposition protests since Musharraf took power in a 1999 military coup. The vote must be held by January. The opposition, which controls a third of parliamentary seats, objects to Musharraf's plan to seek a second five-year term while he still holds the post of army chief.

Musharraf wants the mosque standoff to end with a minimum loss of life, Cheema said.

Security forces early today responded to gunfire by students inside the mosque and then brought down the outer walls of the adjacent Jamia Hafsa seminary where students are hiding. Armored vehicles moved closer to the building, GEO TV reported. Police made loudspeaker announcements calling on students in the building to surrender.

Curfew Imposed

The government extended yesterday's 11 a.m. deadline, allowing time for students to surrender after imposing a curfew around the Red Mosque eight hours earlier. The curfew on people living around the mosque was lifted today for two hours, according to announcements made on loudspeakers.

``The students made petrol bombs for their own defense and they have 13 or 14 Kalashnikovs,'' Aziz said in the television interview. ``I never asked any student to open fire. I have no personal agenda. I am working for Allah.''

Aziz appealed to the students to surrender because it won't be possible to sustain the siege by security forces around the mosque, Pakistan Television reported.

Deputy cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi said in a GEO television interview earlier that he spoke with Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-i-Azam party late yesterday and gave him ``points'' on how to resolve the standoff. He didn't give any details of his proposals. The siege could end within hours if the government agrees to the points, he said.

`Not Criminals'

``We are not criminals that we should surrender,'' Ghazi told the network. ``The government should talk to us.''

The government is not talking to Ghazi and it won't accept third-party mediation, the Interior Ministry's Cheema said.

The arrest of Aziz will boost Pakistan's fight against extremism, APP cited Durrani as saying yesterday.

Aziz's attempt to flee demonstrated how he was using students for his personal interests, Deputy Interior Minister Zafar Iqbal Warraich said, according to APP. The cleric was detained while trying to leave the site dressed as a woman.

``He was arrested while trying to escape in a group of about 60 women, who wanted to surrender outside the mosque,'' Information Secretary Anwar Mahmood said in a telephone interview from Islamabad yesterday. Aziz was wearing a burqa, a robe and veil, he said.

Paid to Surrender

Students started coming out of the mosque after the government extended the deadline yesterday. It offered to pay 5,000 rupees ($82.81) to each student who surrendered to security forces.

Musharraf has stressed that Pakistan must follow a path of moderation to defeat extremism. He has pledged to boost economic growth in the world's second-largest Muslim nation in an effort to reduce the threat of terrorism. Pakistan has a population of 165 million.

Ghazi said in a June 14 interview the purpose of the Red Mosque ``movement'' is to change Pakistan's system of government, replacing it with Islamic law and justice.

``We are not against the government or the people, we are against the system,'' he said. ``We say the system is a total failure in Pakistan. It's not giving food or health care. It may be accommodating the ruling class, but it's giving nothing to the people.''

Ghazi said his movement doesn't want to topple Musharraf because that won't cure the nation's problems. ``Another Musharraf will rise,'' he said. ``We have a better option in the shape of the Islamic welfare system. The Islamic system is so complete it gives justice to everyone.''

The deputy cleric also said the U.S.-led war on terrorism had increased hatred of Americans within Pakistan and ``has given more impetus to the cause of jihad.''

``The minds of the people of Pakistan, their hatred for Musharraf and, frankly, their hatred of Americans, has now increased,'' he said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net; Khaleeq Ahmed in Islamabadt .

Last Updated: July 5, 2007 11:55 EDT