Twelve commandos were also killed during ‘Operation Silence’, launched at 4 am after talks with radicals failed.

Forty three-year-old Ghazi, younger brother of the captured Lal Masjid head Maulana Abdul Aziz, was killed by security forces in the basement after he refused to surrender, said Interior Ministry spokesman Brig Iqbal Cheema.

There were reports that Ghazi was holding women and children as human shields, some of whom were said to have been killed. Officials said Ghazi was shot in the leg and told to surrender but he refused.

The death toll crossed 100 as the operation continued with well-armed militants engaging troops in pitched battles, according to latest reports.

“Troops are involved in room-to-room fighting to take control of layers and layers of the sprawling complex, stretching to several acres,” in central Islamabad, Pakistan Army spokesman Maj Gen Waheed Arshad said.

Umme-e Hassan, Ghazi’s sister-in-law and principal of the girls’ madrasa attached to the mosque, and her daughter Asma were taken into custody by troops who also rescued about 134 people. Ghazi had not even allowed his ailing mother to come out and undergo treatment, Arshad said, referring to Ghazi’s claim that she was killed during the operation.

Asked why the operation took so long, Arshad said troops followed a step-by-step approach to minimise casualties and avoid collateral damage. He denied reports that the army planned to use nerve gas against militants. Pakistan army, he said, had no stocks of nerve gas.

The Army raid took place in a dramatic fashion after “cellphone” talks between Ghazi and Shujaat Hussain, the former premier and chief of ruling PML-Q, failed to end the stand-off.

“I have never been disappointed in my life, but I am leaving this place with extreme dejection,” Hussain said in the nationally-televised press meet after the talks failed.

“I asked him (Ghazi) to give up his stubborn attitude for the sake of Allah, for the sake of children, for the sake of women, sisters and mothers, but in vain.”

By the time the newsmen, who until then thought a breakthrough was round the corner, absorbed Hussain’s statement, firing and explosions rocked many sides of Lal Masjid and the Defence Ministry lost no time in announcing that ‘Operation Silence’ had commenced.

Taking advantage of the cellphone handed over to him by the government for talks, Ghazi quickly called TV channels in the midst of explosions, claiming he had been deceived by Hussain and Religious Affairs Minister Izajul Haq and vowed to resist the crackdown till his death.

“I said to Shujaat (Hussain) that kill us, but people will not allow you to go in peace,” Ghazi said before the government disconnected his phone.

“This is gross injustice; people conducting the operation are American agents and carrying out this operation on the US bidding. Now I am sure to be a martyr soon.”

The operation formally ended the reign of Ghazi brothers, Aziz and Rashid, whose family headed the mosque ever since their father Abdullah was appointed its head priest by first military ruler Ayub Khan when it was constructed in 1965.