KARACHI, Pakistan - Heavily armed police raided religious schools and mosques in a nationwide sweep that continued into Saturday, arresting at least 250 Muslim extremists, senior Interior Ministry officials said.
The crackdown came ahead of President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf's address to the nation Saturday evening, in which he is expected to
announce comprehensive measures to curb religious extremism, terrorism and
violence. The arrests were a precaution against any violent reaction by
extremist Islamic groups after Musharraf's speech, said a senior police
official, who asked not to be identified.
They also come against a backdrop of high tensions between Pakistan and India,
which accuses Pakistani intelligence and two Islamic groups of being behind a
Dec. 13 attack on its Parliament. Pakistan denies involvement.
Fourteen people, including the five assailants, were killed in the parliament
attack. The incident prompted the two South Asian nuclear rivals to send troops
to the frontier in disputed Kashmir - their largest military buildup since
1971.
Most of those arrested belonged to the extremist Sunni Muslim group
Sipah-e-Sahaba, or Guardians of the Friends of the Prophet, and the Shiite
Muslim Tehrik-e-Jafria, or Movement for the Imposition of Shiite Law. Some
members of the Sunni Tehrik, or Movement, also were arrested, police said.
Islamic anti-Indian groups tied to unrest in Kashmir also were detained
throughout the country.
In the restive port city of Karachi, police raided and searched three religious
schools and two mosques run by the Sipah-e-Sahaba in the eastern
Gulshan-e-Iqbal neighborhood for suspected terrorists and weapons, as well as
several private homes. They arrested 74 people, the police official said.
There was no word whether any weapons were seized. Karachi, a teeming city of
more than 12 million people, is Pakistan's main commercial hub and the capital
of Sindh province.
Police arrested more than 150 others in similar raids in over a dozen other
cities, among them Behawalpur, home of Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Masood
Azhar who is accused by India of terror, and Jhang and Akora Khatak, homes to
pro-Taliban clerics Maulana Azam Tariq, and Maukana Samiul Haq. Also raided was
Dera Ismail Khan, home town of Maulana Fazle ur-Rehman, another pro-Taliban
leader detained recently by Pakistani authorities.
Police blame the Sipah-e-Sahaba and Tehrik-e-Jafria for most of Pakistan's
sectarian bloodletting, which kills hundreds of people each year.
Musharraf, who banned the armed wings of the two groups last year, has vowed to
curb religious extremism and violence. In August, he enacted a special
anti-terrorism law allowing bans of groups promoting religious hatred and
violence.
Besides targeting the two groups, the government has also shut offices of
militant Islamic movements, including those waging a secessionist war in the
disputed region of Indian Kashmir. They have been barred from displaying
banners, flags and collecting donations.
The officer said police have been ordered to remove flags and banners of all
the militant religious, ethnic and political groups.
The United States and its allies have been urging Musharraf for swift and tough
action against Islamic extremists. They say a crackdown on militants would help
in easing tensions with India.