Wednesday, Mar 20, 2002
Wednesday, Mar 20, 2002 |
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ISLAMABAD, MARCH 19. Confronted with the challenge from extremist elements within the country, the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, appears to have embarked on a new strategy to ``woo'' the leaders of religious parties and ``moderate elements'' within the jehadi outfits. The Musharraf Government's decision to release the leaders of all major religious parties, detained at the height of the unrest over the U.S. military action in Afghanistan in October last, and the new amnesty scheme for the release of all activists of the banned militant organisations against whom no cases are pending are cited as examples of the new line of thinking. The English daily, The News, in a lengthy front-page report today, detailed the response of the Musharraf Government to the emerging situation, particularly in the light of the spurt in acts of sectarian violence and terror strikes on selected targets like the one on the church in Islamabad. The News said that while waving a white flag to the religio-political groups, the Government had also extended an olive branch to the jehadi organisations, which had largely benefitted from the amnesty scheme. It further said that a senior Punjab police official had confirmed on Monday that no criminal charges had been brought against Masood Azhar of the Jaish-e-Mohammad or Hafiz Muhammad Saeed of the Lashkar-e-Taiba or any other top leader of the banned jehadi groups. ``In the absence of any serious charges, Maulana Masood and Hafiz Saeed can be released any day,'' according to a Punjab Government official, who informed that both leaders had been detained under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) that allows the Government to detain an individual, to maintain peace, for 90 days. The paper said that acting on advance information, the guerilla commanders and the militant cadre of all jehadi organisations had gone into hiding before Gen. Musharraf's January 12 speech. Later, the top leadership of these groups offered themselves for arrest. They were detained in the Government-run, non-prison facilities. ``This was a goodwill signal from the Government to contain the reaction from the well-armed and trained jehadi elements,'' it quoted a senior Punjab police official in Lahore as saying.
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