For nearly two months now, there have been no major public demonstrations in Pakistan over the US-led "war" against terrorism in Afghanistan and over the co-operation extended to this "war" by Gen. Pervez Musharraf. His detention of the leaders of many Islamic religious organisations such as the Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI), the Jamaat-ul-Ulema Islam (JUI) Pakistan factions etc have not led to any major street protests by their cadres.

His telecast address of January 12, 2002, in which he strongly condmned the activities of religious extremist elements and his subsequent ban of January 15, 2002, on the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), the Tehrik Jafferia Pakistan (TJP), the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-eMohammadi (TNSM), the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM) and the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) and the arrests of nearly 2,000 of their political and administrative cadres have been by and large supported by the non-religious political parties, but with nuances.

The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has been pointing out that the manner in which Musharraf took these steps has given the impression as if this was done under Indian military pressure. The criticism by the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) of Nawaz Sharif has been somewhat stronger, but Musharraf has no reasons to be worried over it.

rest of the article is at http://www.saag.org/papers4/paper398.html

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