Pakistan ? President Gen. Pervez Musharraf threatened Saturday to kill militant followers of an Islamic cleric who said he and his comrades prefer death to surrender of their beseiged mosque, ringed with thousands of government troops.

The soldiers in the heart of the capital again held back from an all-out assault, and Musharraf said he hoped to ensure the safety of women and children his interior minister described as hostages.

“Those who are inside Lal Masjid should surrender, otherwise they will get killed,” Musharraf told reporters in his first public statement on the siege.

The cleric, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, a former civil servant whose students have sought to impose Taliban-style rule in the city, says he and his followers prefer martyrdom to the unconditional surrender demanded by the government.

As he spoke authorities were investigating whether shots fired as Musharraf’s plane took off from a nearby military base were an attempt on his life. It was not known whether the possible assassination bid was linked to the mosque crisis.