Pakistan security forces arrested nearly 100 more suspected Muslim militants overnight as hardliners readied protests yesterday against President Pervez Musharraf's response to the London bombings.
Musharraf, under international pressure to act against extremists, told the nation in a televised address late on Thursday that he would tighten the rein on Islamic schools in a bid to stamp out militancy and those preaching hate.
Within hours of the speech, security forces again raided Islamic schools, or madrassas, which have been in the spotlight since it emerged that three of the bombers in the July 7 London attacks had recently been in Pakistan.
Raids overnight
"During raids overnight in all the four provinces, around 90 more suspected militants have been rounded up and the number of people in preventive detention is more than 300 now," said an official monitoring the campaign.
Raids targeted shops selling "hate material" in print, audio and video form, and both police and intelligence services were instructed to arrest anyone inciting violence during sermons at Friday prayers, the official said.
"It is the firm resolve of the government and we will not spare anyone found to be breaching the law," he said.
An alliance of fundamentalist Muslim parties, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), called for rallies outside mosques yesterday and denounced the actions of Musharraf, a key Western ally since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
"Musharraf has resumed the crackdown on religious seminaries and arrests of Islamic scholars and students to please Washington and London," the MMA said in a statement, condemning the "global conspiracy against Islam."
In his national address, Musharraf -- who has been waging an often unpopular campaign against extremists and has survived at least two assassination attempts by suspected extremists -- said there could be no let-up on terrorism.
He appealed to moderates to pray for "Pakistan's deliverance from the menace of extremism" and said his nation would stand together with Britain "to the end, until we emerge victorious."
Blunt words
But he also had blunt words for Britain, where all the suspected bombers had been "born, bred and educated" and where he said Muslim militant groups continued to operate.
He named two groups, the Hizbul Tahreer and al-Muhajroon, which he said were responsible for spreading a message of hate and violence.
"They had the audacity of passing an edict against my life and yet they operate with impunity," Musharraf said.
The Pakistani leader launched the crackdown after both the UK and the US had expressed concern about the possible preaching of hate and extremism in some of the country's 10,000 madrassas.
Pakistan has also arrested over 700 suspects linked to al-Qaeda since the Sept. 11 attacks, including the group's number three Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Militancy
But critics, including the government in neighboring Afghanistan, accuse Pakistan of failing to do enough to control Islamic militancy, and many analysts suspect al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is in hiding in Pakistan.
Analyst Monis Ahmar, who is a professor of international relations at Karachi University, pointed out one of the dilemmas for Musharraf as he tries to rein in extremists.
He said Islamic militants had in the past received government support to fight against the 1979 to 1989 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and in the conflict against India over the disputed state of Kashmir.
"How can you defend the same people for one jihad in Afghanistan, term them mujahidin [holy warriors], and then call the same people terrorists or extremists?" Ahmar said.
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