Pakistan government is seriously considering a proposal to go after jihadi groups associated with the country's mainstream religious parties, sources said.
| I'll believe it when I see it... |
High on this list is Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan's most organized religious party with considerable support among the educated middle class and lower-middle class. "I will not be surprised if the military action against the jihadi cadres of various religious parties starts soon," said Farooq Sattar, the parliamentary leader of the Muttaheda Qaumi Movement (MQM), an ethnic party now in the ruling coalition in Pakistan. Some MQM members are in senior positions in the government, including the federal Cabinet. "Those who harm the basic interests of the state should be crushed," said Sattar whose party is considered a bitter political rival of Jamaat-e-Islami. Founded in British India before the creation of Pakistan, the Jamaat supported fundamentalist Afghan leader Gulbadin Hekmatyar during the 10-year war against the Soviets from 1979. When the Taleban took charge of Afghanistan in 1996, the Jamaat was marginalized as it did not have good relations with the militia. The Taleban movement was led by clerics who studied at Muslim seminaries while the Jamaat is dominated by those who studied at secular schools but later became avowed Muslims and are now known as Islamists. The Taleban leaders, who believed that the leadership belongs to the clerics, looked down upon the Jamaat people as newcomers to their cause.
| "Youse ain't near holy enough for us, by Allan!" |
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