"So far, we have not made attempts to enter the mosque and the seminary, but we are prepared to do that," a senior security official told the press.
Suggestions have been made that the blasts were set off to blow holes in the wall surrounding the mosque and the adjacent seminary in preparation for a possible attack on the building. Red Mosque students, who advocate strict Islamic values, have been entrenched inside since shootouts Tuesday with police and troops, which left at least 12 people dead and more than 100 injured.
About 1,000 students are still inside the mosque, Lal Masjid, a hotbed of Islamic radicalism in the Pakistani capital, after about 1,200 people left the building Wednesday and several more, including two female students, surrendered at dawn Thursday.
"We are not going to succumb to force and surrender," Abdul Rashid Ghazi, brother of the mosque's chief cleric, Abdul Aziz, said Thursday.
Aziz was arrested Wednesday while trying to escape clad in a woman's burqa, which covers the face and the body.
