President Musharraf has rightly said that the greatest danger to Pakistan comes not from without but from within,in the form of religious extremism and sectarianism.Suggest measures to control and curb this menace.

Sectarian violence and religious exterimism is an unpredicatable menace.History is replete with incidents of such sorts in various countries.The bigots and the evil minded selfish natured people are behind this abhorrent act relating to the security concerns of many nations. Unfortunate is the fact that usually the third world Muslim countries have been and are being constantly threatened by these evil acts .

The incident of 9 11 proved to be a fatal act as the world picture took a U turn after the tragic consequences.The conflict, crisis, chaos, conspiracy ,confusion,and compromise are the three’c’s which effected the world all over .

Pakistan also being an important member of the world community also faced the increased threats both internal and external after the incident.Security has always been a misunderstood and misplaced issue in Pakistan .The real threat in Pakistan emnates from from domestic and internal security issues in the name of sectarian violence and religious exterimism.Pakistan unfortunately has always been effected by these internal threats which has always hindered its way towards the staus of progressed and prosperous nation both nationaly and internationally.

THE ORIGIN:

The origins of sectarian violence in Pakistan can be traced back to
the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. A large number of Islamist groups and Maddrasshs popped up inside Pakistan in the name of “Jihad” .Unfortunately the governmanet at that time failed to realize the religious extremist causes and their consequences at that time.

As a result various acts of sectarian violence were noticed caused by both the external and internal influences making Pakistan unstable.
Each act of sectarian killing provoked a cycle of revenge killings.
Civilian Governments failed to curb the menace and their failure in turn allowed the religious militants to flourish and grow in
strength.


The Shia and Sunni violence is also a noteable and a very impotant feature in pakistan’s history and present.The extremists on both sides have always caused troubles and created a major source of disruption in the country.

In October 1999, President Musharraf seized power and faced a formidable foe in the form of well armed and well trained sectarian organizations.

His task to eradicate the extremist presence in Pakistani society was made somewhat easier by 9/11 and the worldwide backlash
against terrorism that it unleashed. Musharraf striked against sectarian groups
knowing that public opinion was mostly on his side.

In a televised speech Musharraf rightly stressed that the greates danger for Pakistan was the extremists who ate the roots of Pakistan and left no effort to loosen its foundations.He conceived tehm to be the bigger sources of menace prevalent inside the Pakistani boundries.Therefoe he impose a ban on the few Islamic madrrassah organizations which were observed as one of those religious extremists responsible for causing unrest and insecurity within Pakistan,playing with the lives of thousandsm of innocent civilians and their minds.

MEASURES THAT SHOULD BE ADOPTED:

The need of the hour is that Pakistan should adopt a muti pronged and muti faceted policy to curb these terrorist organizations.By only putting ban on these organistaions the task of their elimination cannot be achieved.The root causes should be addressed for the complete proliferation of violence from the society.

The preventive measures include the implementation of the strict law that any organization that will be found palying or bluring the national security will have to face strong consequences of its actions.A strict adoption of rules will enable to prevent these organization for the further spread of violence or any harm to the country.The vigorus enforcement of laws is desired in every respect.

Not only the madressahs,another significant root cause of violence in Pakistan is the established feudal society who consider violence to be an integral part of their strong hold over the weak.Infact this evil of feudalism has proved to be very fatal for Pakistan in many respects.It ahs not only disturbed the internal peace but has also blocked Pakistan;s way towards progress by the adoption of corruptive culture. The government must act against such families who have been busy in curbing other individualals through their culture of stronger hold and violence.

The spread of education is another aspect which can create awareness among the people between the right and wrong attitudes.The religious organizations target those people usually who are illetartes and then the technique of brainwashing is adopted to train them according to their own needs and requirements.The play with their lives in the name of Jihad which is very wrong conception.Therefore education is an impotant tool which the government can use to ward off any presence of evil mindedness from the society.

Thus the culture of violence within the boundries of Pakistan is a real challenge for the Pakistani government and for its people.It is indeed a complex matter which really needs to be resolved as early as possible. The present government efforts are appreciative in this regard and it is hoped that it will attain success and will free Pakistan from this dark shadow of our society.

The killings at Hangu, and the ominous presence of security personnel everywhere during Ashura, have once more proved that sectarianism remains deeply entrenched.
Quite aside from the terrible murders and the mayhem created by them, the sense of fear and of discrimination that lives on in the country is deeply damaging. More and more Shias have complained of intolerance, which is causing new rift lines to emerge within an already fractured society.
The real question is how the sectarian issue can be resolved over the coming years. It is obvious that the existing policies have had only limited impact, and militant elements continue to wreak havoc at periodic intervals.
The fact of the matter is that a problem which has taken root over two decades or so may take at least as long to eradicate. After all, numerous studies have shown that prejudice of all kinds is an insidious social phenomenon, which can take generations to wipe out. It is, however, essential that the effort to tackle sectarianism begin immediately. This effort must be underpinned with far greater commitment and a longer-term strategy than has so far been the case. Mere cosmetic measures, revolving around policing militancy by locking up dozens in jails for weeks, or deploying security forces in an effort to keep vigilance over every street corner, is neither feasible nor wise.
It must, in the first place, be accepted that the dozens of young militants who today form small bands, and unleash on society the violence that they have been trained in for many years, need to be dealt with. They also need to be considered as victims, not merely criminals. Rather than simply locking them into jail cells, there must also be an attempt to rehabilitate them as useful members of society.
In this, the state needs to face up to its responsibilities. After all, previous governments played a major role in the training of militants and in the setting up of the seminaries where they received their education in the cruel rules of hatred. The result of those policies are now evident in the form of bomb blasts, the targeted shootings and the suicide blasts that have in recent years shaken cities and towns across the country.
The government of today must then find ways of reversing the trends so deliberately created. Simply mowing the grass is not enough. Roots too need to be dug out. To attain this, those spreading militancy need to be stopped. While anyone guilty of criminal acts must of course face penalties under the law, there is also a need for the re-training and re-education of the many members of these armies.
As with any cult, extremist forces operate essentially by cutting off young victims -- in this case often children or teenagers -- from other social contact, and brainwashing them into abiding by a particular set of beliefs. Examples from around the world suggest that these tactics can be so powerful that average citizens have been willing to kill, maim or commit suicide at the command of leaders. The same holds true for those inculcated into specific schools of thought by extremist forces. The extent to which the power of persuasion can work in changing individuals is readily visible today in society -- with celebrity figures, including pop singers, cricketers and other sportsmen, quite obviously a focus for preachers.
For the task of rehabilitating those won over to extremist causes, and convinced that violence is a legitimate means to achieve their ends, it may be useful to study the methods used to undertake similar exercises in the US, UK, Japan and other countries, where large cults have from time to time taken command of the minds of individuals. Specialists in rehabilitating victims of such cults now exist in many countries. Having mental health specialists talk to members of extremist forces, for instance when they are in jail, may prove a useful exercise rather than simply holding them for a few weeks and then once more letting them loose on the streets.
But it is also worth keeping in mind the fact that given the existing social order, simply providing people a means of survival in economic terms can motivate them to change the pattern of their own lives. Many of the militants have no training -- except in how to use a gun. Due to their lack of skills, many are unemployable and as such able to pursue only the kind of militancy that formed their lone lesson in life. A scheme for training young members of militant groups and offering them work could very well prove a means to limit the number of persons ready to gun down other citizens on the basis of belief or allow themselves to be used as suicide bombers in a game of destruction that has already shattered hundreds of lives.
There are also longer-term strategies that need to be followed. In the first place, discrimination against persons on the basis of belief by the state must end. After all, extremism in the country was given a big boost when, three decades ago, the state took it upon itself to determine who was Muslim and who was not. Since then, more and more bars, social, legal and economic, have gone up which prevent non-Muslim citizens from holding the equal status guaranteed to them by the constitution. An example of this comes in the battle being staged by a young Christian girl denied a place at the King Edwards Medical College in Lahore. The girl, who comes from a low-income background, qualified on merit for a seat but was denied a spot because a Muslim student, tied with her in terms of marks, obtained 20 additional points as a 'Hafiz-e-Quran" -- another means of discrimination that has become institutionalised in the country. Similar rules, regarding remissions for prisoners who memorise the Holy Quran, reflect the same in-built bias.
To push aside the prejudices that have invaded society, several steps are essential. Seminary schools must be replaced by public-sector institutions which can offer a meaningful education. The money being wasted on reforming seminaries must instead be poured into rebuilding a viable public-school network.
After all, parents have turned to seminaries in response to the failings of government schools. Even if curriculums at seminaries are widened, and computers provided, a core learning which weaves hatred into it, inculcates deep biases on the basis of religion or gender and encourages an extremely narrow understanding of religion will inevitably remain in place at these institutions.
It is also true, as has been pointed out many times, that it is the economic desperation of people, the frustration of jobless young men, that most often drives them into the waiting arms of extremist groups. These forces specialise in picking out the vulnerable -- and luring them into an expanding fold. For these reasons, policies that can create jobs, and that can offer socio-economic relief to people, are essential if the sectarian crisis in the country is to be resolved.
If such strategies are not put in place, if ways are not found to pull back young zealots from the fringes of society to where they have been pushed by extremist waves, violence will continue to grow. There is as such an urgent need to end the culture of the gun, before more lives are lost and more fault-lines carved out across a country that is today locked in a desperate struggle to retain harmony and integrity within its boundaries.

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