ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Islamic scholars and a former prime minister started negotiating through cell phones and loudspeakers with militants holding a mosque in Pakistan’s capital Monday, hoping to end the standoff and protect women and children inside.

At least 24 people have died since gunbattles broke out last week between security forces and supporters of hard-line clerics who have tried to impose Taliban-style rule in Islamabad through a six-month campaign of kidnappings and threats.

After a botched commando raid on the high-walled compound over the weekend, President Musharraf assigned former Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to try to negotiate a peaceful end to the standoff.

“We have come here to play our role to resolve the issue. We hope that all these women and children who are inside should be allowed to come out,” Mr. Hussain told reporters as he led negotiators through an army cordon toward the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque.

Information Minister Mohammed Ali Durrani said negotiators did not enter the mosque because of safety concerns, but contacted mosque leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi using loudspeakers and a cell phone.

Six parents who had entered the mosque to look for their children had not returned, Mr. Durrani said. About 150 women and children are believed to be inside.

“If this effort fails, we have other options, too,” Mr. Durrani said. “The basic strategy of the government is to rescue a maximum number of people.”

Mr. Musharraf sent in the army after the gunbattles broke out July 3. He ordered the operation after accusations that he had appeased the radicals.

While shooting has eased in the past two days, sporadic gunshots rang out Monday near the red-walled, white-domed mosque and an adjoining seminary for girls in a busy market area near the city’s government district. Security forces also bombarded the compound with tear gas.

The government has said wanted terrorists are organizing the defense of the mosque, while Mr. Ghazi has accused security forces of killing scores of students.

Mr. Musharraf’s vow to kill the holdouts unless they give up — and Mr. Ghazi’s declaration that he preferred martyrdom to surrender — raised the prospect of a bloody final assault on the mosque.

But religious leaders and commentators are pressing for a negotiated settlement.

“We pray, we hope, we think that better sense will prevail and everything will be resolved peacefully,” a white-bearded cleric among the negotiators, Salim Ullah, said.

The decision to give negotiations a chance came after Mr. Musharraf held a high-level meeting on the crisis. The mediators were believed to include one of Mr. Ghazi’s former teachers, Taqi Usmani.

Mr. Hussain, who is also chairman of the ruling party that supports Mr. Musharraf, and Mr. Usmani have both already tried unsuccessfully to persuade Mr. Ghazi to give himself up.

A senior government official said officials were offering to put Mr. Ghazi and his ailing mother, who remains in the compound, under house arrest instead of jail if he surrenders.

“It wouldn’t be an amnesty. He would still have to face the law,” the official said, requesting anonymity because he was not allowed to speak publicly.

Mr. Ghazi has said he will surrender only if he and his followers are not arrested, while also requesting “safe passage” for himself and his mother.

The siege has given the neighborhood the look of a war zone, with troops manning machine guns behind sandbagged posts and from the top of armored vehicles. Helicopters circle overhead.

On Sunday, the army released an aerial photograph showing how it had blasted several holes in the walls of the compound to help students escape, seeking to disprove claims from Mr. Ghazi, who has given a string of phone interviews to reporters, that the mosque had been badly damaged.

Only two students escaped after the raid, which left a top army commando dead.

Maqir Abbasi went to the barricades around the mosque seeking news of his 22-year-old sister, Yasmin.

“Whenever I hear the sounds of bullets, I feel that my sister has been harmed. We appeal to the government, we appeal to Ghazi, we appeal to everyone. I want my sister back,” he said.

Officials claim that members of banned militant groups linked to Al Qaeda are inside the mosque. Some radical clerics in Pakistan’s wild western border region have called for revenge against security forces because of the siege.

On Monday, some 20,000 tribesmen, including hundreds of masked militants wielding assault rifles, protested in the frontier region of Bajur, led by Maulana Faqir Mohammed, a wanted cleric suspected of ties to Al Qaeda no. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri.