SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2004
Pak bans hardline clerics from travelling
REUTERS
KARACHI: The Pakistani government has banned more than 300 hardline clerics from leaving their home districts to prevent them inciting violence when minority Shi-ites start a key holy month next week.
Shi-ite Muslims hold big processions and meetings during the month of Muharram, in which they mourn the 7th century slaying of Imam Hussain, a grandson of Prophet Mohammad.
Hardliners among the Sunni Muslim consider Muharram, expected to start on Monday, to be against the spirit of Islam and accuse Shi-ites of making derogatory remarks against companions of the Prophet Mohammad.
On Friday, the government issued a list of 341 clerics, mostly Sunnis, who would be confined to their home districts for 90 days.
"There are reasons to believe that they will make speeches or indulge in activities prejudicial to the public safety," the order said.
Police and paramilitary rangers have also been put on high alert, specially outside the Shi-ite Muslim mosques to prevent any attacks.
Pakistan has a history of bloody sectarian violence between extremists belonging to Islam's two main schools of thought. Hundreds have died in attacks in recent years, most of them carried out by Sunnis.
President Pervez Musharraf has banned several extremist groups in an attempt to curb violence, but police say extremists continue to operate in small cells, many with ties to Afghanistan's former Taliban regime and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda.
In Pakistan's restive port city of Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh province, additional police and paramilitary troops were being deployed, provincial government spokesman Salahuddin Haider said.
"There is a possibility of reaction from extremist religious elements as the government is trying to root out extremism from the society," he said. "We can not afford to take any chances."
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