A top interior ministry official said that the police have arrested more than 1,900 activists from the five banned groups (Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan, Tehrik-i-Jafria Pakistan, Jaish-i-Muhammad, Lashkar-i-Taiba and Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-i-Mohammadi) in all four provinces and the federal capital since President Pervez Musharraf outlawed these groups in his landmark address to the nation on Saturday.
"Police have sealed 600 offices of the banned groups and confiscated their literature," the official said. "Instructions have already been issued to the central state bank to freeze the accounts of these outfits." Police have also detained activists from fundamentalist organisations involved in violent protests over the government's decision to join the international coalition against terrorism, the official said.
"We have gone after activists who had a known history of trouble-making, disruption, disobedience and road-blocks," NWFP secretary home & tribal affairs, Javed Iqbal said. Most of the activists had been picked up and booked under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance (MPO). "We have gone for the frontline, secondary and tertiary. We are not going after the foot soldiers," he said. Majority of those arrested in the NWFP were from the TNSM, the secretary said. Javed said those arrested would be tried under cases already filed against them on various occasions in the past.
He further said that the TNSM chief, Maulana Sufi Mohammad now in detention under the Frontier Crimes Regulation at a jail Dera Ismail Khan would be tried under the cases filed against him in Malakand division on different occasions.
The TNSM was behind a bloody revolt against the state authority in 1994 when its activists seized control of the government buildings, civilian airport and police stations in an attempt to enforce Shariat in Malakand division. The TNSM chief led thousands of followers to Afghanistan to fight in support of the Taleban in October last. Sufi Muhammad returned with a handful of supporters, and was arrested and sent to jail. Thousands of TNSM activists were hunted down and killed in Afghanistan, hundreds others are unaccounted for, while an unknown number are prisoners in Afghanistan.
The former Governor of Punjab, General (retd.) Sawar Khan said that efforts are being made to avert a catastrophic war between India and Pakistan, but warned that if a war was imposed on Pakistan, India would not be allowed to make the first nuclear strike and the Pakistan Army would demonstrate its ability of defending the country.
General Sawar Khan said that this time it would be a totally different kind of war, because Pakistan has Ghauri, Shaheen, and Anza missiles while India has Agni and Prithvi missiles. Then he added: "Forget a nuclear war; Pakistan is even exercising restraint to avert a conventional war... but we have not manufactured nuclear weapons for show-biz purposes."
Gen Sawar Khan said Indian intelligence is aware of Pakistan's nuclear shield and any misunderstanding about the concentration of Pakistani forces on the Afghan border will be removed with the passage of time. The Pakistan Navy, in his view, is in a better position than it was in 1971.
Note:
Published in Urdu in Rawalpindi,
Jang is the largest circulation daily in Pakistan. The general pretends confidence, but realizes that Pakistan cannot win a war with India even if it strikes first with its nuclear weapons. The measures reported by
The Dawn on January 16th (see above) would be a sign of Pakistani restraint if properly implemented (Yasser Arafat's "revolving door" for Hamas and Islamic Jihad prisoners springs to mind.) Unfortunately, Pakistan has as yet shown no readiness to give up its claims to territory beyond the Line of Control in Kashmir, which is a necessary precondition for a peaceful settlement of the dispute with India.
