Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak

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inside
jihad
army oF
the Pure
o n 12 January 2002, Musharraf made another about-turn when he
declared that no Pakistan-based organization would be allowed
to indulge in terrorism in the name of religion. In a televised speech
lasting well over an hour, he unequivocally condemned all acts of
terrorism, including those carried out in the name of freeing Kashmir’s
Muslim majority from Indian rule.
He banned five Islamic extremists groups including Lashkar-e-Taiba
(LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the two most powerful jihadist
organizations. ‘No party in future will be allowed to be identified
with words like Jaish, Lashkar or Sipah,’ he warned. 1 This declaration
was acclaimed as an ipso facto renunciation of jihad as a state policy.
From a western perspective, Musharraf’s landmark speech positioned
him as the kind of leader in the Muslim world the West had been
desperately seeking.
The speech marked a departure from the policy of supporting pan-
Islamism and the process of Islamization. Musharraf strongly asserted
that the state should exercise a monopoly over external policy and it
should be determined, not by Islamic solidarity, but by the country’s
national interests. He vowed to suppress Islamic extremist groups
challenging the authority of the state and rein in radical madrasas.