Pak to take stern action against
madrassas involved in militancy


Islamabad, July 12 Taking a stern view of involvement of madrassas in illegal activities, Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has warned that attempts to use them to promote militancy and extremism would not be tolerated.
Briefing reporters on the Lal Masjid operation, he said seminaries functioning according to law need not worry but those found involved in activities incompatible with law or promoting militancy would be dealt with according to the law of the land.

Giving the example of the action taken against militants of Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa, the prime minister said yesterday that law will take course if the government finds any other madrassa involved in the projection of such militancy.

He said that the issue of militancy in Lal Masjid had been brewing for quite some time and the government had credible information about the presence of a "certain category of people" inside the mosque-madressah complex who were not students.

Pakistani troops had on Tuesday stormed the mosque complex to flush out holed up militants.

Blaming the people inside Jamia Hafsa for triggering the action, he said they were interfering in normal civic life and challenging the writ of the government.

The Prime Minister said extremism in Jamia Hafsa damaged the country and brought a bad name for the religion Islam.

Bush reiterates support for Musharraf

Washington, Jul 11 US President George W Bush has praised Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's role in checking extremism after the country's military stormed a mosque in the capital where radical Islamists were holed up, calling the general a "strong ally" in the war against terror.
"Musharraf is a strong ally in the war against these extremists. I like him and I appreciate him," Bush said.

Bush also called the uniformed President a partner in the promotion of democracy. "I'm of course, constantly working with him to make sure that democracy continues to advance in Pakistan. He's been a valuable ally in rejecting extremists. And that's important, to cultivate those allies," he said.

"...This is hard for some Americans to understand, we are at the beginning stages of a major ideological struggle that will affect the security of the United States, and it's a struggle between moderation and extremists. It's a struggle between radicals who kill and rational people who want to live in peace," Bush added.

In an effort to reach out to Muslims, Bush said he favoured people-to-people contact between America and Muslim countries to dispel any misgivings and change the peception about the US.

He also urged people to reject radicalism, and not the "great religion" of Islam.

"...Step one is to make it clear that we reject radical and extremism and murderers, not reject a great religion. Step two is to encourage people like you to go to Pakistan," Bush said in Cleveland, Ohio when a Pakistani American asked the president what the US was doing in public diplomacy to change the anti-American attitude of many Muslims around the world.

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