BBC
Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has told security forces to be patient to allow women to leave the Red Mosque complex (Lal Masjid) in Islamabad.
He ordered a temporary halt to the security operation in the stand-off between radicals and the authorities.
However the deputy leader of the mosque said he and his militant followers would rather die than surrender.
Ghazi Abdul Rashid made the defiant statement as the stand-off, in which 19 have died, entered its fourth day.
"We have decided that we can be martyred but we will not surrender. We are ready for our heads to be cut off but we will not bow to them," he said.
There was no immediate official response. An earlier offer of conditional surrender made by Mr Ghazi on Thursday was rejected by Pakistani government ministers.
The offer to end the confrontation came after Mr Ghazi's brother was captured while trying to flee the mosque.
Pakistani troops have pounded the Red Mosque complex, breaching its wall in three places. On Thursday evening much of the city was plunged into darkness, after storms caused failures in the power supply........
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