Militants in Punjab test the mettle of Pakistan

ISLAMABAD // A spate of terrorist attacks against a minority sect has set off bitter verbal sparring between top Pakistani officials over the growing threat of militancy in the country's most populous and prosperous province, Punjab.

Major differences have emerged over how to tackle the spectre of Islamist extremism in the country's Punjabi heartland, with federal officials accusing the provincial government of turning a blind eye. On Tuesday, Rehman Malik, the interior minister, said a small-scale operation would be carried out in South Punjab after intelligence has been gathered. However, he ruled out a full-scale military operation.

The eastern city of Lahore was rattled last month after a group of gunmen attacked two places of worship belonging to the minority Ahmadi sect. At least 80 people were killed in the attacks that were allegedly carried out by militants belonging to a banned Sunni-sectarian group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, according to Mr Malik. Four days after the massacre, gunmen stormed Jinnah Hospital where one of the arrested attackers was being treated along with wounded victims of the earlier attack. The raid on one of Lahore's major hospitals was ostensibly aimed at killing or freeing the gunman from police custody. The attempt failed after a gun battle in which four policemen and a civilian were killed.

The attacks have put the government of Punjab under an intense spolight for, at best, its perceived failure to combat the spread of extremist groups, and at worst, complicity with them, according to the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party and independent analysts. After the attacks, Mr Malik issued a warning that militants were gaining strength in southern Punjab. Local news media outlets quoted the interior minister as saying that the "Punjabi Taliban" was allied with al Qa'eda and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and was involved in planning major attacks in the country, especially in Punjab.

The federal government has accused the provincial government in Punjab, headed by Shahbaz Sharif, the opposition politician with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) who has a reputation for being a strict administrator, of turning a blind eye to the growing influence of militant groups in Punjab. Mr Sharif, however, scoffed at the allegations and took exception to the term "Punjabi Taliban", saying such statements reek of provincialism.

PML-N officials have said the way to curb militancy is to bring such elements into the mainstream of the society instead of using force. In March, Rana Sanaullah, the provincial law minister and a senior leader of the PML-N, campaigned along with Maulana Muhammad Ahmad Ludhyanvi, the leader of the militant group Sipah-e-Sahaba, during a by-election in Jhang district of Punjab. Mr Sanaullah's tacit support and endorsement of Sipah-e-Sahaba caused an uproar in the country and drew wide criticism.

Pakistani analysts say the war of words, and the competing approaches to fighting militancy between the two rival officials, have political undertones as well. "At first blush, Mr Malik's comments about the Punjabi Taliban are not very problematic or controversial. The term has been used for years now to refer to militant groups who cut their teeth in the Kashmir jihad before teaming up with other strains of militants and eventually turning their guns on the Pakistani state. But there is a political context here that Mr Malik ought to know much about", read an editorial in Dawn, the country's leading English daily, on Friday.

"Perhaps the PML-N has seen in the latest comments by the interior minister a PPP plot to once again lay siege to the Punjab government, this time on grounds of law and order and security", the editorial said. While the northern parts of Punjab province are relatively affluent and industrialised, poverty, unemployment and illiteracy is rampant in its southern districts. The local economy is dependent on agriculture, feudal social structures are strong and vast swathes of land are dotted with madrassas, which officials say are incubators for extremism.

Sectarian groups such as Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, a virulently anti-Shiite outfit; Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a splinter group even more extreme in its views and violence; and Jaish-e-Muhammad have managed to operate despite a government ban on their activities in the southern Punjab. The banned militant groups are present not just in the far-flung areas of south Punjab, but in the urban centres as well. On Tuesday Sipah-e-Sahaba staged a rally in Aabpara, one of the main shopping centres of Islamabad, which falls under the purview of the federal government.

More than a hundred madrassa students gathered at the main square of Aabpara, barely a kilometre from the headquarters of Inter-Services Intelligence, the country's intelligence organisation. Holding flags, members of Sipah-e-Sahaba mounted loudspeakers on nearby traffic signals. One organiser ordered the students to stand in disciplined lines, urging them not to provoke police during the protest, which was meant to denounce the Israeli attack on the flotilla carrying aid for Gaza.

Around a dozen police officers closed traffic in adjoining streets, as Haq Nawaz, a police inspector, quietly watched the proceedings from a distance. When asked if the protesting group was banned by the government, Mr Nawaz feigned ignorance. He said there were no orders to make any arrests. foreign.desk@thenational.ae