ISLAMABAD, 6 February 2004 — Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf threatened yesterday a tough response to religious extremists and militants who use terrorist violence to wage “jihad” or holy war.

Musharraf addressed the legislature of Azad Kashmir, a rugged region disputed with India, on Kashmir Solidarity Day before flying back to the capital, Islamabad, to speak on proliferation of atomic secrets by the country’s top nuclear scientist.

“There are some people, some events that you have seen in the last few months, engaged in terrorism inside Pakistan in the name of jihad in Kashmir and Afghanistan,” said the army general who has survived two attempts on his life in the last few months.

“I will say this to these people who defame jihad in the name of jihad in Kashmir and Afghanistan, stop the disorder over here,” he said. “Otherwise you will be sternly dealt with.”

Officials say they have almost completed investigations into the two assassination attempts in December in the city of Rawalpindi near Islamabad in which the president narrowly escaped injury.

They have arrested several people, some with links to Jaish-e-Mohammad, an outlawed militant group fighting Indian rule in the divided state of Kashmir. Speaking in Muzaffarabad, capital of Azad Kashmir, Musharraf cited a distinction between terrorism and what the government has long called the freedom struggle in Kashmir.

“We are against terrorism but we keep a difference between freedom struggle and terrorism,” he said.

In a landmark meeting with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee last month, Musharraf promised Pakistan would not allow its soil to be used to support terrorism, a response to Indian charges that Islamabad trains and arms militants in Kashmir.

Musharraf’s opponents have criticized the joint declaration, saying he had conceded more to India than he had gained by obtaining India’s agreement to discuss the future of the territory. Musharraf rejected this.

“We are not selling out. I have said that the vital national interests of Pakistan are two: the Kashmir cause and our nuclear missile power,” he said. “Anyone who sells them out is a traitor.”

Nuclear-armed Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir and reached the brink of a fourth in 2002 after New Delhi blamed Pakistani-based Kashmiri militants for a bloody attack on its Parliament. Pakistan has denied the charge.

Relations have thawed in recent months and the two countries are set to start a process of formal talks on Feb. 16. Musharraf said he was confident it would become clear this year whether real progress was being achieved on the issue of Kashmir.

Meanwhile, Pakistanis observed an annual day of solidarity with the people of Kashmir but unlike the past the event this year took place in a changed environment of a thaw in relations with India.

“The mood has changed, the policy has changed and the people have responded to the peace initiative and have rejected the policy of hatred,” said Tauseef Ahmed, a university professor.

The Kashmir solidarity day has been observed in Pakistan since 1984 on Feb. 5 under government sponsorship.