Rights group welcomes ban on militants

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said on Monday the government must follow up on a crackdown on Islamic militants announced by President Pervez Musharraf at the weekend.

HRCP said the militants operated as a state within a state, and threatened the growth of civil society.

"These groups had created intolerance, caused sectarian divide, brought brutalisation into society, derailed the youth and caused social instability," HRCP chairman Afrasiab Khattak told IRIN from the northwestern town of Peshawar.

The sweep extended a crackdown launched following a 13 December attack on India's parliament and a military stand-off between the nuclear rivals. India has put pressure on Pakistan to arrest those it holds responsible for the attack and to hand them over to New Delhi, though Musharraf has rejected the demand.

A senior government official told IRIN that more than a 1,000 militants had been arrested across the country since the events of 13 December. They belong to five groups banned by Musharraf, including members of sectarian parties like Sunni Muslim, Sipaha-e-Sahaba, and Shi'ite Muslim, Tehreek-e-Jafria Pakistan, parties.

"So far we have arrested 1,300 people across the country belonging to the five outfits," army Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, head of the government's Crisis Management Centre (CMC), told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

He said some of those arrested already had cases against them, while some others were arrested to prevent any violence or reaction from the groups. "Hopefully, we will continue with the arrests," he added, explaining the government had not faced any resistance so far.

Zia-ud-Din, editor of the English language daily Dawn, who supported Musharraf's move, told IRIN he did not expect any violent reaction from the groups because they would not like to confront Pakistan's powerful army.

Islamic groups were at the forefront of violent protests against Pakistan's support for the international coalition against terrorism, particularly the military campaign that recently routed the hardline Taliban from Afghanistan.

Musharraf's domestic purge has angered these groups, some of whom were reported in the Pakistani newspapers as saying that they would defy any bans and continue with their activities.

"It is totally cruel and unjust to brand us as terrorists and to arrest our people," Izhar Bukhari, spokesman for the head of the banned Tehreek-e-Jafria Pakistan party told IRIN, denying his group was involved in violence.

"The arrests have created chaos, up to 200 of our members have been arrested so far," said Bukhari, who emphasised that the party was providing badly-needed aid to poor people in the north and centre of the country by opening schools, building road bridges and launching social projects.

The government has sealed many offices of the groups, which also include Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad - both involved in an armed struggle in the Indian-controlled part of the disputed Kashmir region - and Tehreek Nifaza Shariat Mohammadi, a group struggling for the imposition of Islamic Shariah law in the country.

The groups sent thousands of armed men to fight alongside the Taliban against the US-led attack in Afghanistan.

Musharraf has also warned other Islamic groups to keep their activities and operations within the country's law and to refrain from involvement in Indian-controlled Kashmir, the cause of two of the three wars between the south Asian neighbours since their independence from Britain in 1947.

Khattak said Musharraf had taken the right step to stem the hardline Islamic and other militant groups, though such a move should have been made a long time ago. "The civil society had for years been pointing out the threat those elements were posing to the integrity of the state and the interests of the population," an HRCP statement, faxed to IRIN on Monday, said.

"The next natural step to this process would be democratisation of society and it is hoped the authorities will be able to deliver to the people of Pakistan with the same fervour they exhibit in fighting for the cause of the Kashmiris, the right to elect their own representatives," it added.

Musharraf took over the country in October 1999 after a bloodless coup, removing prime minister Nawaz Sharif, suspending the legislature and declaring a state of emergency. He has promised to hold general elections in Pakistan by October 2002, in line with a ruling of the Supreme Court.