Author: Munir Ahmad, Associated
Press Writer
Publication: Yahoo News
Date: May 10, 2002
Muslim extremists Friday praised
an unknown suicide bomber for his "heroic sacrifice" in killing or wounding
23 French citizens in Karachi, but expressed dismay that there were no
Americans among the casualties. Three Pakistanis were killed and 11 wounded.
"I don't know who the bomber was,
but he picked the wrong target," said Abu Jihad, a member of the outlawed
Jaish-e-Mohammed, which is considered very close to the Afghan Taliban
and Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al-Qaida network. "We feel sorry
for those French and Pakistanis who were killed in the attack."
Many members of Pakistan's outlawed
Muslim extremist groups have gone underground in the face of massive arrests
by police since car bomb exploded Wednesday next to a bus full of French
naval engineers in the volatile port city, but Associated Press reporters
were able to talk to some of them Friday.
Fundamentalist Muslim clerics and
militant leaders in the capital Islamabad and in Karachi distanced themselves
from the attack.
But their students said they were
thrilled, especially at first.
"We were happy because someone told
us that Germans and Americans have been killed in Karachi," said Abu Jihad,
referring to initial confusion about the nationality of the victims. He
said he and his fellow students had hugged each other and cheered on first
hearing the news.
Hours later, however, their excitement
faded when they learned that the victims in the country's worst attack
on foreigners were French and Pakistani. To their surprise, no American
was even injured.
"Even so the suicide bomber's heroic
sacrifice was in a just cause," Abu Jihad said.
Almost immediately after the attack
police began raiding homes, offices and religious schools of the suspected
militants, said Brig. Mukhtar Ahmed, home secretary of Sindh province,
of which Karachi is the capital.
Many militants, however, evaded
capture, police and their colleagues said.
One of the raids was on the Karachi
home and school of Maulana Allah Wasaya, wanted in connection with a number
of killings, but he wasn't there.
His 12-year-old son Omar Farooq
said his father hasn't been home for several weeks. "My elder brother and
my sister's husband were arrested by the police, but my father escaped."
Wasaya is a member of Sipah-e-Sahaba,
an extremist Sunni Muslim group espousing a Taliban-like Islamic system,
and his school provides free Islamic education to poor students.
"None of our elders are present
here today," said Mohammed Khalid, a teen-age boy peering through the white
iron-gate of the school where more than 350 students are registered. "Students
have gone home too. We are closed today."
Police say that many such Islamic
schools provide a sanctuary to extremists.
At least 226,000 students attend
more than 800 Islamic schools in Karachi, the Sindh government says. Police
say it is difficult to monitor and regulate every school.
Police said that by Friday afternoon
they had arrested 330 Islamic militants in a nationwide sweep. Most of
those arrested belong to Sipah-e-Sahaba, which means the Friends of the
Guardians of the Prophet Mohammed, and Jaish-e-Mohammed, or the Army of
Mohammed. Both groups have had close ties with the Afghan Taliban and many
of their members have links with Arab militants and al- Qaida.
It was a renewed crackdown by the
government of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who has provoked the wrath
of Muslim fundamentalists by turning his back on the Taliban and joining
the U.S.- led war on terror since Sept. 11.
In January police arrested hundreds
of suspected militants when the two organizations and three other Islamic
groups were outlawed, but most of them were freed within weeks after the
police failed to file charges against them.
"Islamic elements are being arrested
just to tell the world that the government is serious in arresting those
involved in Wednesday's bomb explosion," said Commander Musa, an Islamabad
spokesman for Jaish-e-Mohammed.
"We condemn the attack on the French
nationals because they were the guests of Pakistan," Musa said. "They should
have not been killed on our soil."
Maulana Mufti Jamil Ahmed, a senior
Islamic cleric who runs 17 Karachi religious school with 17,000 students,
said the police "have no justification to do all this because the Sipah-e-Sahaba
and Jaish-e- Mohammed are not involved in any acts of violence."
Ahmed said it was un-Islamic to
carry out suicide bombings in an Islamic republic like Pakistan.
"Suicide bombing is permissible
in places like Palestine and Indian Kashmir (news - web sites) where Muslims
are fighting for liberation, but not in Pakistan," he said.
"The Arab Mujahedeen (holy warriors)
will also not carry out any such attack here because it is damaging for
Pakistan," he said.
Maulana Abdul Rehman, a cleric at
the 1,500-student Jamia Farooqia in Karachi's low-income Shah Faisal Colony
neighborhood, said, "We don't allow any students who are members of the
outlawed groups in our school."
The militants denied the bus attack
was terrorism.
Maulana Abdul Aziz, head of an Islamic
school in Islamabad, said, "We warned the Pakistan government of a possible
reaction if it did not stop its support to America against Afghanistan
(news - web sites)," Aziz said. "But nobody paid any attention to our pleas."
(Editor's Note: Associated Press
Writer Amir Zia in Karachi also contributed to this report.)