Pakistan launches post-7/7 raids

"Police in Pakistan have detained about 200 suspected Islamist extremists in a series of raids on religious schools, mosques, and other properties," reports the BBC.

Suspects are being questioned about links they may have had to the deadly July 7 bombings in London.

South Africa's Mail & Guardian Online reports that Pakistan's Interior Minister, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, on Wednesday confirmed 200 Islamic activists have been rounded up, but "denied any links with the London bombings."

"The action against extremists has nothing to do with the London bombings and we are dealing with it as our internal matter," Mr. Sherpao told reporters in Islamabad.

07/19/05 British PM tackles terror 'head on' 07/18/05 Studies: War radicalized most foreign fighters in Iraq 07/15/05 Poll: Support for Bin Laden in Muslim world falls

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Musharraf is expected to announce new crackdown measures in a televised addressed Thursday, according to BBC.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday he was considering calling an international conference on how to eliminate Islamic extremism, reports The Associated Press. Mr. Blair said the conference would focus on the possibilities of taking "concerted action right across the world to try to root out this type of extremist teaching."

Blair said he recently spoke with Musharraf and was satisfied there was a "real desire and willingness on part of Pakistan's government to deal with madrassas preaching this kind of extremism."

The Times of London reports that " there was confusion" as to whether a British man regarded as a key suspect in the attacks was among the men arrested in the Pakistan raids.

[Tuesday] night Pakistani security sources told The Times that two or three of the men were thought to have links to the London bombings but one in particular was "a major figure in Al Qaeda".

[Wednesday] the Pakistani Information Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, denied reports that the man was Haroun Rashid Aswad, a British-born man of Indian descent who British authorities are seeking as a possible ringleader in the attacks.

"British authorities have wanted to question Mr. Aswad, who appears in US databases of terrorist suspects, ever since his name cropped up in the telephone records of some of the London bombers," reports The Times.

CNN reports that British investigators have asked Pakistan to round up a number of men for questioning as part of the probe into the London bombings.

Pakistan has confirmed that three of the four alleged July 7 bombers, all Britons of Pakistani descent, visited the country.

Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer visited Pakistan last year, reports BBC. A third, Hasib Hussain, also visited last year. Shehzad Tanweer's family say he visited a madrassa.

But, this does not mean they were radicalized in Pakistan, according to Pakistan's ambassador to Britain, Maleeha Lodhi. She told the BBC the bombers' motivation "appeared to be home-grown."

BBC's Aamer Ahmed Khan writing from Karachi, Pakistan asserts that "Musharraf's latest call on Friday for renewed efforts against Islamist militancy is the clearest indication to date that all has not gone well in Pakistan's anti-terrorism efforts."

Mr. Khan writes that "many Pakistani analysts are convinced that the country's problems with tackling extremism are intrinsically linked to the curious nature of its anti-terror campaign."

Background discussions and interviews with senior security officials indicate that since the 11 September 2001 attacks, Pakistan seems to have divided its "extremist problem" into three distinct categories. ...

The first includes the non-Pakistani militants - mostly from the Arab world - against whom Pakistan has followed a "zero tolerance" policy. ...

The second category comprises a huge cadre of home grown militants once aided and abetted by successive Pakistani governments to fight in Kashmir. ...

The third category is that of Pakistani and Afghan militants currently battling the government of President Hamid Karzai and the US-led troops in Afghanistan.

Khan writes that the second category "appear to have been totally exempted from [Musharraf's] campaign." He points out that the policy of separating militants into those three categories is not easily done these days, because – in the words of a senior secuirty official he cites – "It is impossible to tell which of the militants earlier engaged in Kashmir are now wedded to the Al Qaeda ideology."

Khan ends the piece this way: "The big question now is whether [Musharraf's] order for a fresh crackdown is based on a recognition of the limitations of a policy in which one militant is distinguished from the other on the basis of his ideological moorings."

In a report headlined "To many, talk of a crackdown in Pakistan seems hollow," The New York Times points out that Musharraf said three and a half years ago that "We will take strict action against any Pakistani who is involved in terrorism inside the country or abroad."

Despite government promises and denials, radical groups continue to operate in Pakistan. Religious schools, or madrasas, still indoctrinate and recruit would-be militants to fight abroad. Several leaders and members of these extremist groups, arrested in 2002, are back on the street. Militant training camps remain; one Western diplomat said they have just "changed addresses."

Also...
• British spy units will keep tabs on Muslims ( Sydney Morning Herald)
• Lessons from a journey across the Arab world ( The Daily Star, Lebanon)
• Pentagon says China seeks to extend military reach ( The Los Angeles Times)
• London mayor blames Middle East policy ( BBC)

• Feedback appreciated. E-mail Matthew Clark.