Pakistani forces dynamite mosque wall

Pakistani security forces besieging a radical mosque in the capital Islamabad blew up part of the wall of the compound, a security official said.

There was also an intense exchange of fire before midnight (local time) between security forces and Islamists holed up inside the fortified Red Mosque complex, the official said.

"Security forces dynamited the wall to allow people inside to come out if they want to," he told AFP.

People inside the compound who wished to leave risked being shot by hardline students if they attempted to climb the wall, which is seven to eight feet (2.1 to 2.4 metres) high, he said.

Breaching the wall also gave security forces a clearer picture of what was happening, he said.

A 13-year-old boy escaped on Saturday morning through a similar hole in the wall.

Pakistani forces have held back from raiding the now bullet-pocked mosque but there were intense clashes during the day.

An AFP photographer at the scene said heavy firing between the security forces and the militants continued for more than 45 minutes late on Saturday with several bullets hitting the walls of several houses.

A man with a bullet wound was brought to a hospital from a residential area near the embattled mosque.

Relatives said he was hit while having dinner in his house in a curfew-bound area.

Earlier President Pervez Musharraf told the besieged Islamists to surrender or face the risk of being killed.