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Praiseworthy

We need to congratulate Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on taking the bold decision to storm the Lal Masjid to flush out militants, though it came a little late. To prove that he is committed to rooting out terrorism from every corner of the country, as he claimed in his address to the nation, he should make a serious attempt to crack down on all terrorists operating from the Pakistani soil.

R.P. Nagendra,

Bangalore

Gen. Musharraf should know that making tall statements is one thing and putting them into practice is quite another. He should also know that creating a Frankenstein is simple but facing it is terrible. Gen. Musharraf’s plight is his own making as he gave wholehearted support to militants to create trouble in Kashmir. President George Bush, instead of patting the General on his back, should castigate him for playing with peace in Kashmir.

K.R.P. Gupta,

New York

Operation Silence has enhanced Gen. Musharraf’s image in the West and among the nations that are supporting the war on terror. But there is no scope for complacency as the Lal Masjid is only the tip of the iceberg. Militant leaders such as Fazalur Rehman Khalil of the banned Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (one of the five signatories to the fatwa issued by Osama bin Laden against the enemies of Muslims in 1998) are still around, training militants across Pakistan. (Khalil was seen during the Lal Masjid siege as part of the delegation that tried to negotiate with Ghazi). Gen. Musharraf should seriously crack down on radical militants like him, holed up in madrasas across the country.

Kannan Sekar,

Thiruvananthapuram

Though it rightly says economic deprivation and despair are responsible for growing fundamentalism among a large section of Pakistanis, the article “The Masjid & the mindset of despair” (July 13) trivialises the danger posed by fanatics who are bent on usurping power in the name of preserving religious purity. The moderate majority in the country should be encouraged in its efforts to unshackle itself from the grip of religious fanatics. In this endeavour, Islamabad should be wary of Washington, which was solely responsible for the creation of the Frankenstein monster to combat communism during the Cold War.

Kasim Sait,

Chennai

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