Musharraf to review arms recovery drive

ISLAMABAD, JULY 22. The Pakistan President, General Pervez Musharraf, has convened a high-level meeting of Governors, military and public officials to discuss the cause of failure of the nation- wide arms recovery drive even as the Interior Minister said the Government would not hesitate to ban militant groups if they failed to surrender weapons. Gen. Musharraf has summoned Governors and top officials of all the four provinces to Islamabad next week to discuss failure of the ongoing illegal weapons recovery drive from making the desired impact, media reports said here today.

During last month's amnesty for people to hand over their illegal weapons, officials reported surrender of 86,757 weapons. In the subsequent crackdown, they could barely recover around 19,200 weapons. In this backdrop, Gen. Musharraf convened a meeting to discuss ways to step up the drive, Pakistan daily The News said.

Meanwhile, the Interior Minister, Mr. Moinuddin Haider, told the BBC before the Agra summit, that the recovery of the arms drive applied to Pakistan based ``jehadi'' groups fighting in Kashmir. The recorded interview was telecast few days ago by the BBC in its Asia Today programme.

Hinting at a ban on the sectarian as well as ``jehadi'' groups, Mr. Haider said his Government was committed to eradicating the weapons culture from society and no one including the ``jehadi'' groups would be exempted from the proposed crackdown. Referring to allegations that all Kashmir militant groups used Pakistan as a spring board to launch attacks in Kashmir, Mr. Haider said raids would be conducted to recover illegal arms.

He said no training camps would be allowed nor anyone allowed to carry weapons, adding militants would be given time to reform but if they persist with their activities, the Government would not hesitate to ban their outfits. Mr. Haider's comments, however, carried little conviction as the Government has completely backed out from its earlier threat to ban fund collection by ``jehadi'' groups. Early this year, Mr. Haider threatened a massive crackdown against public fund collection drives by ``jehadi'' groups which was given up midway. Even during the month-long illegal arms recovery drive by his ministry, only once did they raid a militant ``sectarian'' outfit's office in a provincial town and recovered some weapons.

In his July 20, press conference, Gen. Musharraf, answering queries about threats by the Lashkar-E-Taiba and the Hizb-ul Mujahideen to step up attacks in Kashmir following the failure of the Agra summit, said Pakistan considered militants as freedom fighters and provided only diplomatic and moral support to them. He also gave no indication that he planned a crackdown on them.

- PTI

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