South Asia: Pakistan and the Himalayan States - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 191

agency who fight in Kashmir and who may be respon-
sible for recent bombings in India (see Chapter 9).
The most well-known is Lashkar-e-T aib .

T Together with Peshawar, Islamabad is the most
vulnerable city in reference to a takeover by the
Taliban. In June 2009, the government discovered
that there were 260 madrassas in Islamabad—
many unregistered. Political scientist Christine
Fair (2009) espouses that many of the madrassas
are busy , “spreading hatred against the armed
forces of Pakistan. . . and that in some ways they
are centers of a civil war of ideas.” Fair also points
out that many religious scholars are marginalized
by modernization and globalization and seek their
own relevance via orthodoxy .
In the context of Islamic history , madrassas
were the primary sources of Islamic and scientific
learning. Contrary to Islam' s call for contemplation
and reflection, a majority of madrassa students are
taught only to memorize Koranic verses in Arabic.
They are also subject to harangues against non-
Muslim societies, especially the United States and
Israel. Students are exhorted to, “kill infidels and
the enemies of Islam.”
A recent survey (2009) indicates that some
religious schools are changing their approach.
As international organizations focus on women' s
education, empowerment, and economic independ-
ence along with criticism of Pakistan' s low female
literacy rate (42%), increasing numbers of families
are demanding a more practical education for their
daughters. Even boys' schools are stressing language
and writing skills (Arabic, Urdu, and English) as well
as computer literacy .

• Afghan Taliban : The original Afghan Taliban under

Kandahari (a southern Afghan province) leadership
led by Mullah Mohammad Omar, believed to be
living in Quetta.

• Al-Qaeda and Affiliates : Organization led by

Osama bin Laden and others believed to be hiding
in the FA T A.

• The Pakistani Taliban : Groups including extremist

outfits in the FA T A and the NWFP . As mentioned
above, one leader, Baitullah Mehsud, is believed to
have been killed and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar,
the Taliban' s deputy leader, was captured in 2010.

Sectarian Violence
Neither Sunnis nor Shi'ites believe that the other is
adhering to the “correct” form of Islam. Centuries of
violence, mutual discrimination, and hatred erupted in
2003 when attackers, armed with machine guns and
bombs, attacked a Shi'ite mosque in Quetta, Baluchistan,
and killed 55 worshippers as well as themselves.
Violence spread to Karachi and parts of Punjab, leaving
more than 350 dead by 2004.
In another terrible incident in Quetta that year,
machine-gunfire and grenades cut into a Shi'ite proces-
sion commemorating the death of Muhammed' s grand-
son. T Two suicide bombers blew themselves to smithereens
in the middle of the procession. Shreds of their bodies
hung from balconies and electric wires. This ghastly
carnage left 44 dead and scores wounded.
The rising tide of sectarian violence is beyond the
capability of the police and intelligence agencies to pre-
empt and deal with. Many of their officers have been mur-
dered. Also, terrorists have infiltrated both groups. For
example, a 2004 suicide bomber in Karachi turned out to
be a police officer and a member of a state security agency .

TERRORISM
Pakistani authorities have long had ties to militant groups
in and out of their country . They have supported fighters
in Kashmir (see below), the anti-Russian Afghan forces,
and the rise of the Taliban in that country . However, once
Pakistan threw in its lot with the United States after 9/11,
it has earned the resentment and anger from militant
groups. Beginning in 2002, deployment of troops in the
tribal regions has further fueled anger and even generated
hatred. There are five categories of terrorists:

Al-Qaeda and the Taliban
T To describe the “war on terror” as an American enterprise
is to simplify the facts. The United States is involved in
many such wars, in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Y emen,
and the southern Philippines, for example. The Pak-
istani government is fighting terrorism, not only in the
frontier regions, but also in numerous areas throughout
the country . While former President Musharraf and
the current President Zardari are trying to queldis-
content and terrorist atrocities, their roles have not

• Sectarian: Sunni and Shi'ite groups who are hostile

to each other.

• Anti-Indian : Groups that operate with the alleged

support of the Pakistani military amd intelligence