Author: PTI
Publication: The Times of India
Date: October 6, 2003
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/uncomp/articleshow?msid=217264
As President Pervez Musharraf made
a fresh pledge not to allow Pakistan to be misused by religious extremists,
the domestic media on Sunday asked him to crack down on all jehadi groups
including those fighting in Kashmir.
"There is no real distinction between
sectarian terrorists and the so-called jehadis... There is enough evidence
to suggest that cadres of the so-called jihadi organisations also doubled,
in many cases, as sectarian terrorists," The Daily Times said in a editorial
referring to the Friday attack on a Shia Minority bus in Karachi in which
seven people were killed.
"It is futile to distinguish among
groups like Harkat-ul Mujahideen, Jaish-e Mohammad, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
and Lashkar-e Jhangvi as jehadi or sectarian, the newspaper said warning
that it would be a "downright dangerous exercise" if one tried putting
jehadi or sectarian tags on one or the other organisation.
According to it, since the militant
groups fighting inside Afghanistan and Kashmir were Wahhabi-Deobandi, a
free hand to them by the state meant they would also pursue a sectarian
agenda.
The daily's comments followed after
Musharraf termed the religious extremists as enemies within and cautioned
that if such elements went unchecked the extremists could "pull down" the
country.
Another daily Dawn said, "Given
the President's own realisation that the religious extremists could harm
the country both internally and externally, the war against domestic terrorism
needs priority over the commitment we have to fight against international
terrorism".
"There is no external threat which
can do any harm to us...The enemy lies within and this element of religious
sectarianism may pull us down," Musharraf told a meeting of industrialists
on Friday and vowed to crackdown on them.
"We will not allow the country to
be used and misused by extremists-international extremists", he had said.
While the sectarian attacks were
generally blamed on Indian intelligence agency RAW, police held the militants
of the jehadi groups in most of the cases for these attacks, The Times
said adding it is "clear who they are and what groups they belong to".
"General Pervez Musharraf has, on
many occasions, talked about curbing extremism. But so far the government
has failed to put down this scourge. We are also concerned about why leaders
of banned extremist groups like Jaish continue to be treated as VIPs.
"There can be no half-measures on
this score... This can only be done by striking where it matters the most,
at the level of top leadership", it said.
"There is need to look at these
issues with rigorous intellectual discipline... General Musharraf's talk
about modernising Pakistan will remain just that unless he were to take
concrete measures to address these deep-seated prejudices and distortions.
It's time for him to walk the talk," it said.
