The Hindu : Front Page : We will wipe out militants, says Musharraf

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 13, 2007
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We will wipe out militants, says Musharraf

Nirupama Subramanian

ISLAMABAD: In a sombre address to the nation on Thursday night, President Pervez Musharraf said he was determined to eliminate extremism and militancy from “every corner” of Pakistan and would not allow any other madrassa or mosque in the country to be misused like the Lal Masjid and the Jamia Hafsa seminary.

Gen. Musharraf spoke a day after the Army, backed by the paramilitary and police, took control of the Lal Masjid-Jamia Hafsa complex in the heart of the capital after a 40-hour battle with militants holed up inside. Describing it as a day of sadness because the government had to act against its own citizens, Gen. Musharraf said it was also a day of “introspection” for all Pakistanis about where their country was headed and what they wanted to be.

“We must be clear that Pakistan is not yet rid of extremism and militancy. But we must fight it with full commitment, root it out from every province, every corner of Pakistan. And we will do it,” he said, speaking in Urdu.

Pointing to the North-West Frontier Province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas as posing a challenge in this respect, Gen. Musharraf said the government would “retrain and reorganise” the police, and paramilitaries such as the Levies and Frontier Corps, give them better weapons, including tanks and guns, and back-up support of the Pakistan Army. The special training and reorganisation would take six months, he said.

He also stressed that the government would never allow another madrassa or mosque in the country to be misused, and he asked the Wakaful Madaris, a national federation of mosques, and religious scholars to play a “pro-active” role in preventing another Jamia Hafsa-Lal Masjid.

Jamia Hafsa had caused a major setback to the good impression about madrassas that he had worked so hard to create in the international community to the extent that many were prepared to put in money for the reform of seminary education, the President said. Calling the majority of Pakistanis as “moderate”, he asked them to strengthen the Government’s hands.

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