Former Prime Minister and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto warned the government on Tuesday of the emergence of extremist militant groups that could threaten the entire country.In a statement, she said the emergence of the Al Badar and Al Shams groups on the political horizon in 1971 had lead to the country’s break-up. “Groups like Lashkar-e-Islami (LI), Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad are now playing havoc with the country,” she said, adding, “The PPP is alarmed that even now in Islamabad, Lal Masjid’s prayer leader calls upon Madaris to provide militants.” She warned that if the fire ignited by the religious militants was not extinguished, it would “enflame” the whole country. She urged the government to wake up to its responsibility and restore law and order. “The regime has failed in its responsibility to contain militants and extremists,” she said.
Recalling the latest sectarian riots and killings in the Khyber Agency, she said, “Armed men of a private militia of the Lashkar-e-Islami (LI) set on fire five security check posts in Bara on Sunday and plundered several shops. Earlier, the private militia’s head Mangal Bagh Afridi had warned security forces in an announcement on FM radio that his troops would attack if the LI centres were not vacated by early morning on Sunday.” She said that as the deadline ended, the group rampaged. She said it appeared the government had abandoned its responsibility and yielded before extremists not only in tribal areas, but also in the country’s developed areas.
“It appears that extremists have regrouped and grown in strength following the rigging of the 2002 general elections,” she said, adding, “If elections are rigged again to keep the PPP and its allies out, the forces that regrouped the Taliban in tribal areas and allowed extremists to spread as far as Islamabad would be strengthened to the detriment of the Quaid’s vision of Pakistan as a federal, democratic and moderate state and threaten our people’s way of life and our nation’s destiny.”