200 held in madarsa raids, Musharraf address today

President Pervez Musharraf is to address the nation on Thursday to seek support for the nationwide raids against the madarsas and militant groups, state-run PTV said.

The President has given directions to police to arrest persons against whom there is concrete evidence of having extremist links. Orders were also given to monitor Friday congregations at mosques where clerics deliver sermons every week.

More than 30 members of banned militant groups—Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Harkat ul Mujahideen and Hizbul Tehrir—were arrested in Punjab, which has over 10,000 seminaries, police said. However, the Lashkar-e-Toiba—a Pakistani establishment favourite—has been conspicuous in reports by its absence.

The crackdown turned violent on Tuesday night when a large police contingent raided Islamabad’s Jamia Hafsa and were met by hundreds of students, including veiled girls, who attacked the police with sticks and stones.

Twenty-three girl students and four police personnel were wounded.

Pakistan’s six-party Islamist alliance, the Muthahida Majlis Amal (MMA), announced nationwide protests on Wednesday against the crackdown. Accusing Musharraf of launching the crackdown to ‘‘please’’ Western leaders, MMA general secretary Hafiz Hussain Ahmed claimed that not even a single person arrested had any connection with extremism.

—PTI

Journalist swiches off mobile phone at extremist HQ, London office panics

Islamabad: A potiential international incident turned out to be a false alarm, when a British journalist switched his cellphone off while on an interview at the headquarters of the Jamat-al-Daawa, the parent organisation of the banned Lashkar-e-Toiba. Thanks to the resultant chaos, the outfit has banned foreign journalists from entering their headquarters unescorted.

The Guardian correspondent’s London editors panicked when they found him unreachable, fearing that he might have been abducted or in other danger. A phone call to the Pakistan government would have resulted in a police raid on the Jamat’s Muridke headquarters, had the correspondent not been alerted in time by Pakistani journalists in Lahore.

Anxieties were calmed as the reporter touched base again with his head-office—the only adverse fallout has been a blanket ban on unescorted foreign journalists at the Jamat’s headquarters, issued by the organisation itself. Foreign journalists may now visit only if accompanied by Pakistan information ministry officials.

—PTI