Pakistan faces threat from religious extremists within the country, not from India : Pakistan’s Cabinet Minister

Editorial comment

Better late than never that Pakistan realised the true threat, yet it is equally true that Pakistan cannot do much about its religious fundamentalism !

Islamabad (Pakistan) – ‘We do not face the threat of being attacked by India. We have the 6th largest Army in the world. We are a nuclear power. India cannot fight us. We are not in danger from Europe either. The threat that we face today is from within the country due to religious extremism’, said Pakistan’s Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry while addressing a consultative conference on terrorism in Islamabad.

Chaudhry further said, ‘Religious fundamentalism is being promoted from the schools and colleges, and not from madarsas across the country. The teachers hired in the 1980s and ‘90s were a part of a conspiracy that attempted to teach religious extremism to the students. Students in regular schools and colleges were found to be involved in some of the most talked-about incidents of radicalism. The steps taken to control radicalism are not enough. The Central and State Governments are not prepared enough to face this crisis. The dispute with Tehreek-e-Labbaik forced the Government to retreat. Radicalism is like a ‘time bomb’. Islam or any other religion has nothing to do with religious fanaticism’.