 President General Pervez Musharraf said on Friday Pakistan faces no external threat, but is threatened from within by religious extremism and reiterated the government's resolve to fight the "unenlightened exponents of our great religion".
| That's this week's statement of the obvious... |
"No external threat can harm Pakistan, the enemy lies within," Gen Musharraf said, adding that sectarian and religious extremism could damage Pakistan both internally and externally. The president described extremism as "the most serious area" and underscored that Pakistan "must address it".
"We will not allow Pakistan to be misused by any international extremists," he said.
| "Our domestic extremists are quite enough, thank you..." |
"Pakistan has an intelligence set up, a special operation task force on the ground, and a fully mobile and quick reaction force to combat extremists." Referring to Thursday's army operation against Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects in the tribal areas, he said the army would continue to act against Islamic militants. "There will be no extremist here in Pakistan."
| I'll believe that when Hafiz Saeed's in jug — and I don't mean under house arrest — and Lashkar e-Taiba has been broken up... |
Gen Musharraf said the vast majority of Pakistanis were moderate and the "unenlightened minority" should not be allowed to 'hijack' religion and tarnish Pakistan and Islam's image. He said all Pakistan's laws were in accordance with Islam. "Pakistan is an Islamic country, it will remain an Islamic country and no law can be enacted here which is against the teachings of the Holy Quran and the Sunna," he said.
| I think I see your problem, Perv... |
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