Following several rounds of tough negotiations between Red Mosque representatives and authorities, accompanied by a week of internal turmoil, the two policemen abducted in Islamabad were released on Thursday.

"We are freeing the two officers as a gesture of goodwill on humanitarian grounds and at the request of their families," Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the vice principal of Jamia Hafsa madrassa motivated the decision.

Adepts of the sharia took the streets of Islamabad last Friday and managed to kidnap four policemen and demanded the release of eleven students and a religious leader previously arrested in exchange for the police officers.

A first round of negotiations led to the freeing of two policemen Saturday, the Lal Masjid clerics hoping the authorities will keep their promise and release the detained students. But the government stepped in and stopped the process, saying it could create a dangerous precedent that would only aggravate the situation.

Massive police forces were deployed in Islamabad and raids led to numerous arrests of Abdul Aaziz Ghazi followers. Religious students from the infamous Red Mosque again stormed the streets and seized three more officers Monday, but quickly released them.

The local authorities began to free some of the detained students, attempting to defuse the conflict after the two radical leaders Abdul Aziz and his brother Abdul Rashid threatened the authorities to carry out suicide attacks if they resort to force.

President Pervez Musharraf is in a very difficult situation, as the fanaticism of the rule of sharia adepts is well known. On the other hand militancy in Islamabad is rapidly growing, the people and officials demanding Musharraf to put an end to the turmoil.