Pakistan’s eight-month-old military regime is in a tight spot. Military leader Gen. Pervez Musharraf, under increasing pressure from the United States, is trying to crack down on militant groups. His government has begun to restrain radical sectarian organizations and to register madrassas – religious schools often used as militant-recruiting centers. One main government aim is to broaden the madrassas’ curricula from religion into mainstream subjects such as mathematics and science. Beyond that, the government has expelled hundreds of Arabs who settled in Pakistan after the anti-Soviet Afghan war ended in 1989. Many were suspected of links with Osama bin Laden, the Saudi dissident and alleged terrorist who lives in Afghanistan. “We want to remove the impression that we are a soft state,” Haider, a retired Army general, told NEWSWEEK.
But in trying to clean up its militant image, the government has put itself on a collision course with hard-line mullahs. “We will never allow the government to interfere in our affairs,” declared Abdul Razzaq, the head of one of Pakistan’s largest madrassas, Jamiat-ul Uloom Islamia Binoria, in Karachi. Musharraf has already lost one battle. Last month he moved to liberalize Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law, which carries the death sentence for anyone convicted of defiling the image of the prophet Muhammad. The law has been abused by religious zealots to prosecute Christians and other religious minorities. Islamic parties and some senior generals strongly opposed Musharraf’s move, and the general was forced to withdraw it. Newly emboldened Islamic parties are now demanding the enforcement of what they describe as the “Islamic system.” As part of that, they want Fridays restored as a religious day of rest. “This country was created in the name of Islam, and we will not allow anyone to change its ideological identity at the behest of Washington,” says Ahmad.
Local jihadi (holy-warrior groups) such as Harkat ul-Mujahedin and Jaish Muhammad, whose members fight in both Kashmir and Afghanistan, are resorting to smear tactics. They’re using the local term “Kadiani” to effectively brand Haider and other government ministers as non-Muslims. While they lack broad public support, the militants are motivated and could gain popularity because Pakistan’s economy is in tatters. Perhaps more troubling, Islamic leaders have begun to speak of allegiance to religious-minded senior military officers, whom they call “pro-jihad generals.” Senior government sources confirm that Musharraf is battling opposition from generals within his ruling junta, who bristle at U.S. pressure to curb militants and to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
The government has made some progress. At Pakistan’s urging, Taliban leaders two weeks ago closed down a sprawling complex of military barracks in Rishkor, outside Kabul, which served as the largest training camp for radicals associated with bin Laden. Taliban fighters cleared out some 1,400 Pakistani militants and an unspecified number of Arabs. Kargha, a military-training base eight kilometers to the northwest of Kabul, and occupied by Arab fighters, has also been closed. So has a third camp in Afghanistan’s southern Khost province. “We have verified that all three camps have been closed,” a senior Pakistani official told NEWSWEEK. “All the militants and the Arabs have left.” Sources tell NEWSWEEK that the Taliban did not expel the militants themselves who were undergoing training, but simply shifted many to fight Taliban opponents in northern Afghanistan.
Within Pakistan, Musharraf faces a real test as he moves to regulate the madrassas. The administration has managed to register just 4,000 of more than 40,000 centers nationwide. Karachi’s Binoria alone has 8,000 students. Its redbrick buildings in downtown Karachi are the nerve center of militants including Harkat ul-Mujahedin, which Washington has declared a terrorist group. The aggressiveness of Binoria and the other madrassas marks a menacing shift in Pakistan. Previously, such centers of Islamic learning were always voluble but not armed. Thus far, General Musharraf has handled this martial change gingerly. That won’t be good enough. After having grabbed power, the military must now fight to exercise it.
