If you want the Paki picture on how Zia changed Pak from a "Muslim state" into an "Islamic state",read my earlier post and link to the article by the veteran paki scribe.It is a very important distinction.The author says that the 25,000+ madrassas in Pak,many funded by rich Saudis, are the root cause today of perpetuating the gospel of hatred and jihad and the tragedy that Pak has become.Unless the Paki state destroys the fountainhead of this Islamist fundamentalism,which has brainwashed an entire genertaion of Paki youth,nothing will change.Pak is now witnessing the opening skirmishes of its inevitable Civil War,as the two sides,those diminshing numbers,mostly establishment men, wanting Pak to evolve into a modern Musim state like Turkey are being outnumbered by the younger generation of jihadis and Talibunnies,who want Pak to become another Islamist state breathing fire and thunder against India,the US,Israel and the rest of the non-Muslim globe.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 882989.ece
At least six killed in Pakistan as suicide bombs shatter Islamabad campus
Zahid Hussain and Jeremy Page
Two suicide bomb attacks killed six people on a university campus in the Pakistani capital yesterday as the Taleban retook a key town from the army in the militant stronghold of South Waziristan.
One of the bombers blew himself up outside a girls’ cafeteria during the lunch break at the International Islamic University on the outskirts of Islamabad. The other struck a faculty building on the same campus. At least two female students were among the dead.
It was the latest in a series of militant attacks over the past two weeks but the first since Pakistani security forces launched a ground assault against Taleban and al-Qaeda sanctuaries in South Waziristan on Saturday.
“It seems that [militant] sympathisers or collaborators are doing this to divert attention from the military operation,” Anwar Hussain Siddiqui. the university’s president, said. “They are trying to create panic in the capital city.”
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Rehman Malik, the Interior Minister, said that the bombings were in retaliation for the long-awaited military operation. “The militants are testing our nerves,” Mr Malik said. The Government ordered the closure of schools in all the major cities last week after intelligence reports that the militants could attack educational institutions.
Authorities have also launched a crackdown on the capital’s Islamic seminaries after intelligence agencies said that they were harbouring terrorists.
The bombings occurred as Taleban militants in South Waziristan recaptured the symbolically important town of Kotkai from the army after a fierce battle.
Kotkai is the hometown of Hakimullah Mehsud, the new chief of the Pakistani Taleban, who has been blamed for most of the militant attacks of the past fortnight. Government forces had briefly seized control of the town, which has also been used to train suicide bombers and is a gateway to a militant stronghold at Sararogha.
Security forces were still controlling the hills surrounding the town, according to a military spokesman.
Analysts had said that the capture of Kotkai would be a huge psychological victory for the security forces and could trigger defections of Mehsud tribesmen fighting with the Taleban.
About 30,000 troops are up against about 12,000 battle-hardened insurgents in what is being seen as the army’s toughest challenge in the region since the fall of the Taleban in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2001. The army said that 20 more militants had been killed in fighting since Monday. There was no independent confirmation as reporters are barred from the war zone.
Aid agencies said that thousands of refugees were fleeing the battle zone, adding to an estimated 112,000 displaced people who have registered with local authorities since June.
The aid agencies warned that the total number of refugees could rise to 250,000 in the next few weeks.