Pakistan to expel foreign students

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- All foreign students studying at Islamic schools in Pakistan will be ordered to leave the country, President Pervez Musharraf said Friday. About 1,400 foreign students are enrolled in madrassas, or Islamic seminaries, some of which have been linked to militant groups.

The foreign students "have to be removed from the country," Musharraf said at a news conference Friday. "Even those having dual nationality. No one in the madrassas will be allowed to spread extremism and hatred in the society."

Pakistani officials confirmed earlier this month that three of the four suicide bombers who attacked London's transit system on July 7 visited Pakistan last year and early this year. Musharraf confirmed Friday that one of those men had stayed at a Pakistani madrassa. But he did not name the madrassa or the bomber.

Following the London bombings, Musharraf launched a third crackdown on extremists in as many years. While the previous crackdowns have resulted in some successes in targeting foreign militants directly linked with al-Qaida, the infrastructure of domestic militant groups has remained largely intact.

In the new crackdown, hundreds of people have been detained, including people accused of publishing extremist materials and preaching hatred in mosques. The Pakistani leader said some of those arrested were picked up in connection with the London attacks, but he said no direct link had been found.

Musharraf reiterated that his government soon will require madrassas to register with authorities by December 31 and provide more mainstream education.

The government estimates that 1.7 million students attend as many as 30,000 madrassas, most of which emphasize memorization of the Koran and other lessons in Islam.

"No mosque or madrassa will be allowed to fan extremism," Musharraf said. But he provided no details about penalties for failure to register or examples of how registration would help change the situation.

Hard-line Muslim clerics, religious parties and madrassas have vowed to resist regulations.

Musharraf stressed Friday that he is very serious about the current crackdown, and told reporters he personally is supervising the operation. "I have directed the police and law enforcement agencies not to arrest 'nobodys,' but only the leaders of banned militant organizations," Musharraf said. "The operation will continue."

Nearly 600 people were detained in the last week's crackdown against banned militant groups. But none of those detained are leaders of several known militant groups, some of whom emerged from previous crackdowns to make speeches, raise funds and publish magazines that openly advertised for recruits to attend training camps for jihad.

Afghanistan's government says numerous Taliban officials continue to live and organize in Pakistan, an assertion that Musharraf's government denies.

Leaders of some of the most notorious militant groups have been central to Pakistan's support for the fight against Indian rule in Kashmir. And despite peace efforts between India and Pakistan, Indian officials say infiltrations are on the increase again across the cease-fire line that divides the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

Such militants have close ties to the Pakistan military's Inter- Services Intelligence agency, and are considered heroes by many Pakistanis, and would therefore be difficult for Musharraf to prosecute without at least achieving a peace agreement with India first.

Musharraf said the current round-up of extremist suspects would be carried out with prudence.

"Our campaign is not meant to capture people in large numbers and then release them after a fortnight," he said. "We are not going to impress with numbers but we are after bigwigs, who abet extremism and violence."

Musharraf said the government's actions have widespread backing of the nation's moderate majority, which has rejected opposition parties call for a strike to protest the crackdown.

Musharraf said that as a result of his government's actions, Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network, which has ties to some Pakistani militant groups, "cannot organize attacks elsewhere in the world from Pakistan." U.S. intelligence agents who interrogated Libyan al-Qaida suspect Abu Faraj Farj al-Libbi, who was captured in Pakistan earlier this year, found that he was using a courier network to communicate, Musharraf said. It took two months for his messages to reach their destination, the president added. If bin Laden or his Egyptian lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahiri were communicating from Pakistan "with the people doing terrorist acts any where in the world, we would've caught them by now," Musharraf said.

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